Your car was stolen in Tulsa: what to do, in order

First, rule out a tow or a repossession

A car missing from where you parked it may be sitting on a tow lot. Tulsa Police's stolen-vehicle policy, last updated in August 2025, has the officer check for a tow or a repossession before writing a theft report. Two Oklahoma laws mean the department may already know where the car went:

• Repossession: a tow company that repossesses a car for the lienholder must tell the local police or sheriff within two hours (47 O.S. 965).
• Private-lot tow: a wrecker that removes a car from private property, such as an apartment or store lot, must send a copy of its tow form to that city's police department (47 O.S. 954A).
• Police tow: cars TPD has towed go to the City's contract lot. The towed and impounded cars page has the lot, its phone number and the release steps.

Source: Tulsa Police Department, Policy 108A: Vehicles Reported Stolen (PDF); Oklahoma Statutes, Title 47 (PDF): 47 O.S. 965 and 954A.

How to report a stolen car to Tulsa Police

If you see the car being taken, call 911. Otherwise call TPD's non-emergency line, 918-596-9222. TPD's reporting page is clear: “Domestic Violence, Stolen Vehicles, and Missing/Runaway incidents cannot be reported online.”

Under TPD policy an officer is assigned when the theft happened inside Tulsa city limits, even if you live outside them, or whenever the owner insists on seeing one. A car taken in Broken Arrow, Jenks or another city goes to that city's police.

Have this ready when you call:

• The plate number, the VIN, and the year, make, model and color.
• Proof you own the car. The title or the registration is enough on its own. Without either, TPD accepts any two of these: an insurance card or policy, the manufacturer's certificate of origin, a sales contract, loan papers, or a lease or rental contract.
• Where and when you last saw it, and what was inside, such as a PIKEPASS transponder or bank cards.

Were your papers in the glovebox? Oklahoma law requires every insurance card to show the year, make, model and VIN (47 O.S. 7-601.1), so your insurer has the VIN on file. Write down the incident number the officer gives you; the insurer will ask for the report.

Source: Tulsa Police, Make a Police Report; Tulsa Police, Policy 108A: Vehicles Reported Stolen (PDF); Oklahoma Insurance Department, vehicle theft tips (July 2025); Oklahoma Statutes, Title 47 (PDF): 47 O.S. 7-601.1.

What Tulsa Police do with the report

One rule in TPD's policy decides when the car goes into the national system: “Proof of ownership is required before a stolen vehicle may be broadcast or entered into the National Crime Information Center (NCIC).” Without proof, the report is still taken, but the NCIC entry waits until ownership is verified. State law also has police report every stolen and recovered car to the Department of Public Safety (47 O.S. 4-105).

If you know who took it and they had no permission, TPD lists the car as locally stolen instead of entering it in NCIC. A car you lent out that never came back counts as embezzlement, which the policy says includes test drives and vehicles taken with the owner's permission.

Follow-up belongs to the Auto Theft Unit in the Detective Division, which handles larceny and unauthorized use of vehicles. If the car turns out to have been borrowed or repossessed, tell the officer: a knowingly false theft report is a misdemeanor (47 O.S. 4-106).

Source: Tulsa Police, Policy 108A: Vehicles Reported Stolen (PDF); Tulsa Police, Detective Division: Auto Theft Unit; Oklahoma Statutes, Title 47 (PDF): 47 O.S. 4-105 and 4-106.

Call your insurer and your lender the same day

The Oklahoma Insurance Department's advice is to call your insurer within 24 hours, and your lender too, with your police report. Theft falls under comprehensive coverage, and the department warns that not every coverage type includes theft.

• The wait. A 2013 column by the state Insurance Commissioner said an unrecovered car is paid at its depreciated value after a set length of time, without naming a number of days. Ask the adjuster what your policy uses.
• Deadlines in Oklahoma law. The insurer must acknowledge your claim within 30 days (36 O.S. 1250.6). Within 60 days of your proof of loss it must accept, deny, or tell you it needs more time, and outside a fraud or arson investigation it gets no more than 120 days (36 O.S. 1250.7).
• The payout. A total loss is settled with a comparable vehicle, or with cash based on the cost of one including taxes, license and title fees, less your deductible (36 O.S. 1250.8).
• The loan. The department notes that comprehensive pays actual cash value, not your loan balance. The CFPB describes GAP coverage, if you bought it, as meant to cover that difference when a car is stolen or totaled.
• Things inside. The department says stolen contents are a homeowners or renters claim, not an auto one.

The Insurance Department answers auto insurance questions at 800-522-0071. The Oklahoma car insurance page covers coverage minimums and total losses.

Source: Oklahoma Insurance Department, vehicle theft tips (July 2025); Oklahoma Insurance Commissioner, auto theft column (Dec. 2013, PDF); Oklahoma Insurance Department, Choosing Your Automobile Insurance Policy; Oklahoma Statutes, Title 36 (PDF): 36 O.S. 1250.6, 1250.7 and 1250.8; CFPB, What is GAP insurance?.

Stop PIKEPASS and PlatePay bills for the missing car

If a PIKEPASS transponder was in the car, or the car is on your account, call the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority at 1-800-745-3727 right away. Under the PIKEPASS agreement, any use of a stolen transponder is on you until you report the theft. Once you do, the OTA deactivates it.

Without a transponder, PlatePay mails the toll bill to the registered owner, and an unpaid bill becomes a toll violation notice. Oklahoma law gives you a defense against those notices for trips made after you reported the car stolen and before it was recovered. It also covers trips made before you noticed, as long as the car was “reported as stolen within two (2) hours after the discovery of the theft by the owner.” To use it, mail a certified copy of the police report by first-class mail to the Turnpike Authority and to the district court, and contest the notice within 21 days of receiving it (47 O.S. 11-1401.2).

Request the report through TPD's online Open Records Center, or by mail to Tulsa Police Records, P.O. Box 1027, Tulsa, OK 74103 (questions: 918-596-9286). The PIKEPASS and PlatePay guide covers the rest of the toll system.

Source: Oklahoma Turnpike Authority, PIKEPASS License and Use Agreement (PDF); PlatePay (Oklahoma Turnpike Authority), FAQs; Oklahoma Statutes, Title 47 (PDF): 47 O.S. 11-1401.2, toll violations; Tulsa Police, Request TPD Records.

If only the license plate was stolen

Report a lone plate theft too. TPD's online system excludes stolen vehicles but does not list plates; if its form does not fit, call 918-596-9222.

Oklahoma law requires an affidavit to replace a lost, mutilated or destroyed plate (47 O.S. 1114), and Service Oklahoma's Form 797-D has a box for a stolen one. Tick “Stolen,” sign it in front of a notary, and take it with proof of insurance to any tag agency, or mail it to Service Oklahoma. The form's February 2025 revision lists $17.10 for a replacement plate and decal: a $9.00 replacement fee, a $6.60 mail fee and a $1.50 insurance fee. Fees change, so check the current form.

Add the new plate to your PIKEPASS account; PlatePay's FAQ encourages customers to keep vehicle details current. If a toll notice arrives for a trip you did not take, it must come with an affidavit of nonliability, and the law gives you 21 days from the original notice to send it back (47 O.S. 11-1401.2).

Source: Tulsa Police, Make a Police Report; Oklahoma Statutes, Title 47 (PDF): 47 O.S. 1114 and 11-1401.2; Service Oklahoma, Form 797-D Affidavit for Replacement License Plate/Decal (PDF); PlatePay (Oklahoma Turnpike Authority), FAQs.

When Tulsa Police find your car

TPD's recovery policy is built around reaching the owner fast:

• Officers check the VIN and plate through the Records Section and, where needed, process the car for evidence.
• An officer or the Records Section tries to reach you by phone. If the car will not run, you choose whether it is towed or left where it was found.
• If nobody reaches you, the car is towed to the City's contract lot and Records notifies you in writing. The towed and impounded cars page has the lot's address and number.
• The policy bars an Auto Theft Unit hold on a recovered car unless its VIN was altered or removed or it qualifies for confiscation.

If you find the car yourself, call 918-596-9222. TPD's policy tells officers to make sure owners know they “need to call for an officer to cancel the original report.” The Insurance Department adds that you should tell the police and your insurer at once.

Source: Tulsa Police, Policy 108B: Recovery of Stolen Vehicles (PDF); Tulsa Police, Policy 112G: Impounding Vehicles (PDF); Tulsa Police, Policy 108A: Vehicles Reported Stolen (PDF); Oklahoma Insurance Department, vehicle theft tips (July 2025).

Getting it out of storage, and your things back

Bring the title or registration. Oklahoma law lets an officer hold a car believed stolen until satisfactory proof of ownership is shown (47 O.S. 4-105).

On cost, the City's specifications for its wrecker, impound and storage contract (TAC 277F) put the tow-in charge on the owner, with one exception: the contractor “shall not charge the City or the vehicle owner for moving vehicles to and from storage for auto theft cases where vehicles are being returned to their owner.” No storage rate is printed there, so get the lot's total in writing and ask your insurer whether your policy pays it.

Officers who tow a car list what is left inside on the Tow-In Report, and valuables may be booked into the TPD Property Room for safekeeping. The Property Room is at 1111 W. 17th St. and sees the public by appointment only, Monday to Friday except City holidays, 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. and 12:30 to 3:30 p.m. Call 918-596-9355 or email PropertyRoom@cityoftulsa.org, and bring a photo ID plus your incident or property receipt number. Items held for an owner are kept 90 days.

Source: Oklahoma Statutes, Title 47 (PDF): 47 O.S. 4-105; City of Tulsa, TAC 277F wrecker, impound and storage specifications (PDF); Tulsa Police, Policy 112G: Impounding Vehicles (PDF); Tulsa Police, How to Pick Up Property.

If your insurer already paid you

When an insurer pays a total loss on a car that is still missing, Oklahoma moves the car to the insurer: “Service Oklahoma shall transfer ownership of a stolen vehicle, not recovered from theft at the time of transfer, by salvage or unrecovered-theft title to the insurer.” After that, a recovered car is the insurer's property, so call your adjuster, not the lot. Buying it back is up to the insurer. If it has decided the car cannot be restored to operating condition, it may sell it back only after you sign that you understand it will carry a junked title (36 O.S. 1250.8).

If the car turns up before any payout, the claim becomes a damage claim. The 2013 Commissioner's column says the insurer then assesses the damage and either pays for repairs or declares a total loss. On a car from the last ten model years, repairs costing more than 60% of its fair market value send the title to salvage, stamped “Recovered Theft” (47 O.S. 1111). The salvage title page covers what that brand means later.

Source: Oklahoma Statutes, Title 47 (PDF): 47 O.S. 1111; Oklahoma Statutes, Title 36 (PDF): 36 O.S. 1250.8; Oklahoma Insurance Commissioner, auto theft column (Dec. 2013, PDF).

If the car comes back wrecked

TPD's recovery report notes missing parts and whether the car was stripped. If the insurer leaves the car with you, or it was never insured for theft, the wrecked car guide covers the claim and your options. If you would rather not fix it, we buy some cars ourselves anywhere in Tulsa and pay by check: call (539) 271-2021 or use the sell-it-to-us form. If we cannot buy yours, we say so and point you to a partner's free online offer.