Thanks guys.
Wow! That sucks. Hopefully it all worked out OK.
More than likely, I'm looking at unexpectedly financing a used car. The steering column's was wrecked when whoever stole it jimmied the ignition. The insurance value of this one is less than the deductible, even though it was worth the purchase price of not having to buy a vehicle to me. So it's not likely worth fixing and insurance isn't going to do much or anything for me. Not long after I called the police to report it stolen, they called me back to say it had been reported abandoned by one of the residents of the street it was left on. It ran out of gas and then the lights killed the battery.
Then, I got a call from Halton police stating that a bunch of belongings including the vehicle's documents in a "Weber bag" and the rear bench seat had been left in a parking lot in Burlington, and asked if I knew why that would be. I explained that it had been stolen and subsequently recovered in Hamilton with about 240-250 KM on the odometer. So I got a friend to drive me over to the police station over there and then to the lot and collected what was left.
As of right now, I coaxed the van back to life twice and given it a good run but I don't know if the battery is holding a charge now. We are just finishing lunch up and we're going to see if she'll start up on her own otherwise the friend has a set of jumper cables we can use to start up off his car and then take it into the garage to get a quick estimate on repairing the steering column and see if it's worth doing. For now, I'm using a large flat screwdriver on what's left of the ignition switch.
"Weber bag". I couldn't figure out what the police officer was talking about until he described it and then I realized it was the barbecue cover I had sitting in the back of the van.