Got a question regarding older stolen cars

[Jeff H]

Since I'm not a detective or lawyer and I don't play one on tv, I was wondering what the legality is regarding older cars that were stolen and may suddenly resurface. For instance, say a Yenko Deuce was stolen from a dealer's service facility back in 1970. The owner was paid by his/her insurance company or the dealer's insurance company. Suddenly, that car pops up for sale today(regardless of condition). Is there a time limitation to the claim over who legally owns the car? Would the car still show up as a theft in current police records? Would the insurance company who paid the claim actually have the rights to the car? Or has time expired on any claims and anyone could buy the car and try to title it in their name? And no, I haven't found any old stolen car but doing some research made this thought pop up.

[Kim_Howie]

I would say the Insurance co. would own the car. Being a ins. agent.

[Kim_Howie]

When your car is totaled out ,stolen or whatever you usually give the title to that company.

[MosportGreen66]

Here in NY all stolen and recovered cars wear a sticker on the inner door jamb that just that. Yellow sticker with Red lettering, hard to miss.

I too would think the car belongs the insurance comp.

[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.

[njsteve]

Insurance company still has rights to it, maybe even the original owner if his claim wasn't fully paid. Similar to the maritime law issues regarding treasure hunters. Even though the tons of abandoned gold were on the bottom of the ocean for hundreds of years, the locating of the pirate ship The Atocha brought hundreds of lawyers to the surface, pushing the hundreds of sharks living nearby nearly to extinction. And it took nearly 10 years of litigation to settle the matter. And the shark population has never fully recovered.

So now that you have found those half a dozen missing ZL1s that disapeared from a particular dealership back in '69 why dont you send me a pm and we'll discuss this further....

Sincerely, the Law Offices of Bendham, Over & Reamum

[Jeff H]

[ QUOTE ]
So now that you have found those half a dozen missing ZL1s that disapeared from a particular dealership back in '69 why dont you send me a pm and we'll discuss this further....

Sincerely, the Law Offices of Bendham, Over & Reamum

[/ QUOTE ]

Shhhhhh! Be verrrwwwy, verrrwwwy quiet!

[Hylton]

A similar true life incident occured here not 5 miles from my house. Here's what happened:

I live out in the country side with farmers and horse breeders. Basically the roads are fairly quiet. Some guy was driving down a road in my area about 8 years ago and noticed a very clean looking 1972 Mercedes Benz SL parked on the side of the road with no plates on it. He pulled over to get a good look at the car. It had less than 2,000 miles on it and was mint! The guy called the cops from his truck and waited for them. They came and ran the VIN. Nothing came up. No owner, no stolen report, nothing. The cops then said we will have to tow it and then do some investigative work. The guy said fine but I get first dibs on the car. The cops agreed. The car then went to the tow truck companies storage facility. After a few months, the cops found out that the car was stolen out of Boston, Mass in 1972 and somewhere, somehow the car ended uphere and sat in storage for almost 25 years! The police also gave the tow truck company the name of the insurance company who handled the claim.

Being the fine greedy entrepeneur he was, the Tow truck guy decided he wanted the car and so told the insurance company that they owed him $2,000 for storage but he would so graciously accept the car in exchange for the storage costs. The ins. company agreed since the case had been settled decades before and were not interested in having to sell a car and payout more on a previously settled claim. As Kim can tell you, they are the first to say that they are not in the car sales business. The original guy who found the car was pissed! He thought that he had been swindled out of something which he had found first. He sued the Tow truck company and lost.

[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?

[Kim_Howie]

What do you mean the SHARKS are almost extinct. Their still practicing law aren't they!! Just Kiddin