Man Reunited with Stolen Corvette After 39 Yrs

[Bill Pritchard]

From this morning's Arizona Republic newspaper...

http://www.azcentral.com/community/s...vette1211.html

[Kim_Howie]

Sad part is his Insurance co. paid him for it back then ,and own it.

[jannes_z-28]

We have discussed that before. As a "foreigner" I can't understand why the country with the most lawyers in the world hasn't yet solved this matter.

I can't believe that a car can be driven around for years with title and insurance, paying tax probably too for it and no authority can see that it is a stolen vehicle.

Isn't it time for you guys to call a senator in this matter.

The reason I speak on this matter is because a lot of people who buys car for export is stopped in the US customs,
who is one of few US authorities that has access to the NICB records, were they discover that it is a stolen vehicle.

FYI It could not happen in Europe!

Jan

[ORIGLS6]

[ QUOTE ]


Isn't it time for you guys to call a senator in this matter.



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Yeah, let's get our government involved; that'll fix the problem!

[COPO 70 RS/Z28]

If I were him I'd take the thing out and

"DRIVE IT LIKE I STOLE IT"

[SSJunkie68-69]

[ QUOTE ]
Sad part is his Insurance co. paid him for it back then ,and own it.

[/ QUOTE ]

According to the article, a Judge awarded the original owner the fully restored car. The insurnace company does not own it. Chalk one up for the little guy~

Plus the car has only 12K miles on it.

[al8apex]

the car was bought by my neighbor from a dealer in CA in June of 2009

the previous owner had it titled and registered in CA for the last 19 years

it was "totaled" in a garage fire 10 years ago

it was rebuilt

it is a 65 FI convertible

the dealer that sold it to my neighbor "jumped" the title

the court hearings started in early November

my neighbor was out the $65k until it was awarded last week and he DID get a check from his insurance company ...

way back when it was stolen, the owner let his insurance lapse

supposedly he was never compensated, that is why he got it back

the car WAS recovered in Chicago in 1970 and sold at a sheriff's auction

WHY they never bothered to contact neighboring states about it is hard to say ... there is a lot of murky facts surrounding that aspect of this car

my neighbor has been through the wringer on this as he did nothing wrong

the NICB report did NOT have it listed, only the fire "total"

CA was fine with the car, title, etc

IF the buyer of the car lived in CA and re-registered it there, it would have still been there ... it had a good CA title and was still registered there

the scary part is that a car CAN be registered and have a good paper and even for 19 years without anything happening

bottom line is beware when buying cars, even those with good paper ...

oh, the 12k miles are pure BS, maybe 12k from the restoration, but the car was not a "survivor" in any stretch of the imagination

[MultiMopars]

[ QUOTE ]
the car was bought by my neighbor from a dealer in CA in June of 2009

the previous owner had it titled and registered in CA for the last 19 years

it was "totaled" in a garage fire 10 years ago
it was rebuilt

it is a 65 FI convertible

the dealer that sold it to my neighbor "jumped" the title
It is impossible for a dealer to "jump" title. Dealers don't put titles in there name, that is why titles have an area for dealer reassignment. It lets the DMV know where the car was between the guy that traded it and the new buyer when it is titled in his name. Now the previous owner that had it when sold to the dealer MAY have jumped title, but that is of no concern to the dealer as long as the guy selling it has a legal bill of sale and the title is signed by the owner of record on the title and itr is notorized if required.
When you buy a car from a dealer if you were able to do a title search you would only see the previous owner. If you had deeper access to DMV records it would show the dealer that sold it between you and that other owner, but you would already know who YOU bought it from.



the court hearings started in early November

my neighbor was out the $65k until it was awarded last week and he DID get a check from his insurance company ...
My GUESS would be that HIS insurance company will be looking to the dealer for reembursment.



way back when it was stolen, the owner let his insurance lapse

supposedly he was never compensated, that is why he got it back

the car WAS recovered in Chicago in 1970 and sold at a sheriff's auction

WHY they never bothered to contact neighboring states about it is hard to say ... there is a lot of murky facts surrounding that aspect of this car

This is the "hole" in the system that was discuss in another thread here recently. There apparently is no sharing of information of stolen cars between the NCIB and the state DMVs. There should be a database with all stolen cars V.I.N. that could be cross checked everytime a title changes hands and it would remedy all of this.



my neighbor has been through the wringer on this as he did nothing wrong

the NICB report did NOT have it listed, only the fire "total"

CA was fine with the car, title, etc

IF the buyer of the car lived in CA and re-registered it there, it would have still been there ... it had a good CA title and was still registered there

the scary part is that a car CAN be registered and have a good paper and even for 19 years without anything happening

bottom line is beware when buying cars, even those with good paper ...
EXACTLY. When you are dealing with an old car unless you have a history chain back to the original owner your are well advised to make two phone calls. One to the DMV office you plan to title it in, and the other to the NCIB. The same question for both, "has this car ever been reported stolen?"



oh, the 12k miles are pure BS, maybe 12k from the restoration, but the car was not a "survivor" in any stretch of the imagination

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[al8apex]

[ QUOTE ]
the dealer that sold it to my neighbor "jumped" the title
It is impossible for a dealer to "jump" title. Dealers don't put titles in there name, that is why titles have an area for dealer reassignment. It lets the DMV know where the car was between the guy that traded it and the new buyer when it is titled in his name. Now the previous owner that had it when sold to the dealer MAY have jumped title, but that is of no concern to the dealer as long as the guy selling it has a legal bill of sale and the title is signed by the owner of record on the title and itr is notorized if required.
When you buy a car from a dealer if you were able to do a title search you would only see the previous owner. If you had deeper access to DMV records it would show the dealer that sold it between you and that other owner, but you would already know who YOU bought it from.

[/ QUOTE ]

[b]the dealer had it "on consignment" and never touched/reassigned/whatever the title, the check was made to the dealer but the title came directly from the consignor ...

[ QUOTE ]

my neighbor was out the $65k until it was awarded last week and he DID get a check from his insurance company ...
My GUESS would be that HIS insurance company will be looking to the dealer for reembursment.

[/ QUOTE ]

his insurance company had investigators working on it from day one, reimbursement is unknown from ??? the dealer needs to lose his bond and go to jail for tax evasion too ...

[Bill Pritchard]

The wording in the article is kind of funny, but I took it to mean that it had only been driven 12K miles since it was reported stolen. The article does not say if he had theft insurance on it at the time it was stolen, so who knows if any insurance company was involved back then or not. You would assume there was on a car only 5 yrs old, but you never know.

It seems to me like there have been a rash of these old theft recoveries lately...I wonder if there has been an improvement in access to some national database recently

EDIT: oops, I see I was typing at the same time Jim provided many pertinent facts