Read this article and you'll know what I mean.

http://www.dailymail.com/news/News/2006040720/?pt=0

I'll be etching my trucks very soon.

Ilya

 

Very Cool !!
Etching, A Great Idea.
Thanks for sharing the article.
Mike

 

How'd you like to be the poor SOB that spent $38K on it and had to hand it over. No title insurance on cars. One more good reason to build one yourself vs. buying someone else's finished project. On the other hand stories like this will serve to make potential buyers more suspicious when we want to sell. Anyhow, neat story and I'm glad to hear the guy got his car back.

Similar thing happened here about ayear ago but the car has not been found. A guy had a pretty nice 67 Chevelle for sale up out by a busy road. His home was a good way off of the road, down a long dirt driveway. Problem is he did not bring it in at night so someone moved it for him. The guy was offering a $10K reward for it's return but I don't think it was ever found.

 

But for the etching, here is a similar story - people overseas bought vehicles on ebay and the port authority checked the VINs, which came up as stolen and they contacted the original owners.

http://presstelegram.com/news/ci_3695935

 

Another somewhat related situation but kind of reversed. Buying a rebuilder without proper proof of ownership. A while back Vintage Truck had a story about a guy who always looked at an old truck rotting in a field on his way home. There wasn't much to it. One day he stopped at the nearby farm house to ask about it. The farmer told him it was his old farm truck and he could have, just haul it away. A day or two later a man called his house and informed his wife that her husband stole his vintage truck and he was going to call the cops if it wasn't returned ASAP. It turned out the farmer sold the chunk of land the truck was sitting on a while back and the new owner declared everything on the property his, including the rusty hulk. The first guy got a visit from the local sheriff and had to load the truck back up on a trailer and haul it back. As he was unloading the truck back on the property he lost control of the truck and one of the front fenders caught a tree and was damaged. The new property owner wasn't there at the time but later called the guy and informed him he owed some outrageous amount to repair the fender. The truck was worth basically scrap but he had to negotiate a settlement with the guy.

Bottom line, it's a good idea to have a good title and register your vehicle before starting to work on it. A previous owner who holds a valid title could wait until you have a lot of time and money stuck into it and then demand the vehicle back. You could remove parts you have receipts for but the rest will be a loss.

 

Always get the title straightend out before you set out to work on them.

 

No mention of it, but these guys that get their bike/car back after xx years probably have to give back any insurance settlement they took at the time it was stolen??

 

Usually it would be considered as a salvaged vehicle and the "owner" would have to pay the salvage fee in order to retain it... and unmolested/intact recovered thefts bring in high $$ prices at the auction.

Ilya

 

I suspect the insurance company wrote these vehicles off as losses many years ago. My guess would be that they (the insurance companies) no longer have any record of a theft payout on these vehicles.

 

WOW thanks the information I never thought about etching but I will be doing it myself.

Rod 51F1

 

I've been thinking about a good place to etch my trucks and thought that behind the dashboard panel would be a good place.

Ilya