I'm sorry for your loss. Last summer, my car was stolen. It was found at Mizzou and towed to an impound lot in Mexico, MO. (Mind you, there's about 5 other impound lots closer that were passed by).
These people were the scum of the earth. They wouldn't take cashiers checks, they wouldn't take money orders, they wouldn't take personal checks.....they would only take cash. The impound fee was $480 and my deductible was $500 so I paid them. I highly suspect they had my car for several days before they called me.
When Mr. Green-teeth opened his WALLET (i.e. not a cash drawer or cash register), he probably had 10 grand in there. Frankly, I don't know how he sat with that wallet in his pocket. I asked him for a receipt and he told me that, "My car was my receipt...do you want it or not". Mind you, they wouldn't even give me the company name or address until I got into town. Then they told me to call on my cell and they would tell me how to get there. One of their employees stole about 50 of my CD's. The case was right there in plain sight and I told him that the case was mine. He insisted that it wasn't mine and again, re-itterated, "Do you want your car or not?"
They don't know this yet but they are about to get audited. It helps to know people in the IRS. Steal from me and you'll pay the price.