{"id":634770,"date":"2026-11-09T13:51:12","date_gmt":"2026-11-09T11:51:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/korabelov.info\/2026\/11\/634770\/won-t-start-we-ll-tow-it-in-korabelnyi-a-man-who-stole-a-vaz-by-towing-it-received-a-suspended-sentence\/"},"modified":"2026-11-09T13:54:06","modified_gmt":"2026-11-09T11:54:06","slug":"won-t-start-we-ll-tow-it-in-korabelnyi-a-man-who-stole-a-vaz-by-towing-it-received-a-suspended-sentence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/korabelov.info\/en\/2026\/11\/634770\/won-t-start-we-ll-tow-it-in-korabelnyi-a-man-who-stole-a-vaz-by-towing-it-received-a-suspended-sentence\/","title":{"rendered":"Won\u2019t start? We\u2019ll tow it! In Korabelnyi, a man who stole a VAZ by towing it received a suspended sentence"},"content":{"rendered":"

Someone\u2019s car was towed away with a rope, leaving only spare parts behind, while one of the thieves kept driving despite numerous fines and court bans. The ending to this story<\/a> was unexpected: both men received five-year prison sentences but remained free.<\/strong><\/p>\n

On the night of March 13, 2026<\/strong>, near building No. 327\/2<\/strong> on Bohoyavlenskyi Avenue in Mykolaiv\u2019s Korabelnyi District<\/strong>, two men spotted a beige VAZ-2109<\/strong> parked nearby. The car belonged to a local resident named Ivan, who could hardly have imagined that soon, instead of getting his intact car back, he would have to reclaim its separate body parts, engine, doors, and even the steering wheel.<\/p>\n

Dmytro B.<\/strong> and Viktor K.<\/strong> decided to take someone else\u2019s car. They did so without any sophisticated methods of picking the locks or starting the engine.<\/p>\n

They arrived in a green Volkswagen Polo<\/strong>, made sure nobody was watching, took out a tow rope, and attached it to the parked VAZ. They secured the other end to their Volkswagen.<\/p>\n

And so, in the middle of the night, someone else\u2019s car set off \u2014 in tow. The thieves hauled it to building No. 45<\/strong> on Hetmana Mazepy Street, where they later did as they pleased with the vehicle.<\/p>\n

The owner suffered losses of 57,078 hryvnias and 88 kopecks<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

All that remained of the car were doors, an engine, a steering wheel, and a tiger-print sheet<\/h2>\n

The list of physical evidence that later became part of the criminal case file makes for particularly interesting reading.<\/p>\n

Instead of one car, the police held two sections of the VAZ-2109 body<\/strong>, four doors<\/strong>, a trunk lid, an engine, seats, a steering wheel, a tow hitch, and other spare parts.<\/p>\n

The steering wheel was packed in a separate evidence bag, the tow hitch in a special sealed plastic bag, and the body sections, doors, and other large parts were sealed with National Police tape.<\/p>\n

And that was not all.<\/p>\n

The items seized also included a black plastic tool case, parts from a Fillips<\/strong> food processor, and even a tiger-print bedsheet<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

What is more, the same case also listed two pyrotechnic grenades, \u201cPiro-5M\u201d and \u201cF-1\u201d<\/strong>, as physical evidence. The court ordered them destroyed. The verdict does not explain how these items were connected to the car theft.<\/p>\n

All of this was stored at Police Department No. 3<\/strong>, which serves Korabelnyi District. The court ordered the seized car parts and other property returned to Ivan.<\/p>\n

The document does not specify who dismantled the stolen VAZ or when it happened.<\/p>\n

Six drives in defiance of a court ban<\/h2>\n

But the car theft was not the only incident involving one of the defendants.<\/p>\n

The court found that on November 18, 2025<\/strong>, the man had been fined 17,000 hryvnias<\/strong> for an offense under Article 130 of the Code of Ukraine on Administrative Offenses<\/strong> and had his driving privileges revoked for one year<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

It might have seemed that he would have to stay away from the wheel, at least temporarily. But he kept driving.<\/p>\n

The criminal verdict describes six instances<\/strong> in which he drove cars in defiance of the court ban:<\/p>\n