Although I would appreciate any advice, anecdotal or otherwise, I should probably just present this as a tale of what not to do. I should also add that I am well aware now of how stupid this story makes me appear and that I am coming to terms with how stupid I probably am.
My car was stolen about 2 months ago. It was right outside my door, on the street one day and then, not. Now here comes the stupid part: the title and registration were in the console.
I made all the appropriate calls. Today I received a call that it was recovered. Someone bought it off craigslist and had the title changed. So I can pick it up from the suburbs. I made numerous calls today to find out how to handle this. It will cost me $250 to get out of impound. It looks like $195 to get the title back, if I can even do that. I paid $1,700 for the car. The people who bought it paid $1,000 and had proof of ownership, title and everything. They bought it less than one month ago.
So, my stupidity cost me a car and plenty of aggravation already and will cost me even more and cost the poor saps who bought it money as well as who know how much aggravation.
They were able to transfer title because when they applied, the city put a delay on the car but then didn’t follow through with the theft alarm so the state issued the title.
IANAL, nor do I play one on TV, but I do like those shows pretending to be small claims courts. I believe you may have a small claims case against the guy who sold the car, as it’s likely he’s/she’s the probable thief to recover those cost. You should probably sue the guy/gal who bought it, if for no other reason than to get information on the seller assuming they’re not one and the same.
This sort of hazy legal recollection bought to you by Judge Judy, where I’m pretty sure I saw a similar case involving a motorcycle.
Thanks Stuffy. I appreciate the humor. The sergeant is under the impression that the buyer was not in on it. If that’s the case, he has to feel pretty stupid now too for buying a car for half blue book. But the VIN does not show up on any website as stolen.
Of course, had you not left the title in the car who knows what they would have done with the car? Probably chopped it for parts or joyrode the thing until it blew up. You’re probably getting it back in much better than usual condition thanks to them being able to sell it!
I mentioned in another thread how I’ve always griped about what a pain title transactions are in my state where either you need to do them in person or have a notary verify everyone’s ID’s. I guess there’s some advantages to that versus the “just fill out the back” states.
I guess so GreasyJack. Although I can’t figure out still why my car would have been targeted. It definitely doesn’t have any parts worth anything. It was the only reported crime in my neighborhood that weekend. I didn’t have theft insurance so I guess I’m lucky it was recovered in sellable condition.
The parts are still plenty valuable on older cars. After all, the sorts of people who are going to buy used parts of dubious provenance are probably not driving new nice cars!
In fact, if you look at the “most stolen” cars statistics, there’s a few “hot” newer models but mostly what’s still dominating the lists are 1990’s Japanese cars. That’s because they are really reliable cars and so there’s still enough of them on the road to support an illicit parts market, both on the supply and demand side. But they were before things like computer chip keys that have made hot-wiring modern cars mostly impossible, so they’re still fairly easy targets. The all-time king is the 1994 Honda Accord, which has been in the top 10 list every year since about 2000.
So, what kind of car was it?
I’m pretty sure nobody is buying Saturn parts, right?
The Big Sleep (Bogart version) and some other old movies show the private dick reading a car’s registration attached to the steering column (If you pause the Big Sleep, it shows the registration cost $4.23, I think).
In some jurisdictions, the law stated registrations had to be in the car. Car owners could buy registration “windows” with leather or fake-leather straps and buckles like those on a watch band that could be adjusted to fit around steering columns.
Innocent times.
Watching The Big Sleep seems like a totally normal reaction to this situation. So thanks!
I guess I fell prey to the “license and registration, ma’am” movie meme?
Hmmm, probably much less so, unless they’re shipping them to the alternate dimension in which Saturn actually did outsell all those Hondas and Toyotas like GM wanted it to.
You still need to carry your registration in the car, but there’s not really any particular mischief a thief could get up to with it. I think back when vehicle titling first started, sometimes the registration and title were one document, but I don’t know if that was the case back in 1940’s California or not.