Got a question regarding older stolen cars

[Jeff H]

So who do you actually go through to check the VIN of a car to see if it's listed as a stolen vehicle? Local police, DMV, NICB?

[Hylton]

[ QUOTE ]
So who do you actually go through to check the VIN of a car to see if it's listed as a stolen vehicle? Local police, DMV, NICB?

[/ QUOTE ]

Jeff,

It all depends how long ago the car was swiped. As our resident lawyer has said, someone will have a legal interest in the car and it may be difficult to find out who that is. It is just like the Grandma who found 2 common shares of some obscure stock only to find out through exhaustive research that over the years, the company changed its name, was bought out 5 times and the stock is now called IBM and each share is worth 100k! If the theft occured a while ago, you have to go through NICB.

And if you are inquiring because you did find those 6 ZL1's........

[John Brown]

Had a friend that came up with a simular situation. He went to look at a car and wrote down all the vin info and such. He had his insurance agent run the vin (vin on car didn't match title) and found it had been stolen like 20 years before (in 1968). Thief was too scared to drive it or part it out, but thought it was safe to sell 20+ years later with a title from another car. It was found just the way it had been stolen. The short story is that the insurance company had paid the original owner all but the deductable, which meant the original owner still had a legal claim to ownership of the car. Friend got a good lawyer and bought out original owners position in the car (not cheap!). After about a year of court action friend finally got the car after paying the insurance company what the judge determied was owed them for their investment. Now friend owns a 10,000 mile 67 Vette, 427/435.