When a motor vehicle is stolen, can the owner of the stolen vehicle ask for a warrant to search the vehicle's contents?

It cannot be assumed that the owner of the vehicle has no personal effects in the car to which a Fourth Amendment claim might be raised. Although officers are authorized to remove a stolen vehicle from the road and to store it (Veh.Code, 22651, subd. (c), 22850), the removal and storage provisions do not authorize a warrantless search of the contents of the vehicle. (Mozzetti v. Superior Court, (1971) 4 Cal.3d 699, 707, 94 Cal.Rptr. 412, 484 P.2d 84.) Any interest of the owner of the car in possessions left in the car may be adequately protected by noting the presence of any closed containers and removing them for safekeeping or rolling up the windows of the car and locking the doors. (Id., at pp. 707-712, 94 Cal.Rptr. 412, 484 P.2d 84.)