Legally Stolen 55 Chevy in Snellville GA.

[60Buick]

A friend of mine called me on Saturday. His dad passed about 6 weeks ago and he left him a very very nice 55 Bel Air Chevy that he bought new and has been parked since the mid 70's. The car has been sitting in the barn on his dads property for the last couple years. He went to get the car a few weeks ago and it was gone. They believe it was stolen as soon as word got out about his death. His mother reported it stolen and this is where EVERYONE in GA needs to pay attention. The police found the car, in fact they found it that day. The car is in Snellville and is registered and tagged. The police questioned the "owner" and he produced a bill of sale and the recent tag and registration papers. Still could be recieving stolen goods so this led them to the "prior" owner on the bill of sale. He was questioned and swears he has owned the car for 15 years just not having it registered because it was not road worthy. The guy has other people back his story.

The car is recovered someone goes to jail and all is happy right? WRONG. Now James has the burden of proof.

After some digging, James produces the ORIGINAL paperwork for the car including the original title and takes that to the police dept. In good old GA the title is not valid and the last registration is 35 years expired. The title is not recognized as anything other than toilet paper on any car registered in this state that is over the age of 40. The will not issue or recognize a title on any car that is 40+.

So far we have one guy with a nice car that he may or may not have recently bought and one guy that says he owned the car for years but can't really prove it and another that says they are the current owners and can't really prove it. It is "his" word against "his" word and the two without proof are not even in possesion of the car. The guy still has the car and my buddy is pretty much out a car.

Because you can register the car on a bill of sale and have the car inspected by the police to verify the vin you can steal a car that is of the ripe old age of 40 as long as you can write a bill of sale to yourself. The only thing James can prove is they owned the car 35 years ago. They can't prove the car wasn't sold. There is no paper trail or documentation to prove one way or the other.


I told this story to a few people and it not that uncommon. My boss at work lost a 50's Ford convertible the same way. It was taken out the garage and registered. That could be bullshit and he may be trying to one up my story. Who knows.

I do know I bought my 52 Ford truck off a farm in Alabama and wrote a bill of sale to myself and had the police verify the vin and I tagged it. The guy I bought it from may not have owned it. Who knows, but its my truck now. Same with several Buicks and even an 82 hearse that I lost the bill of sale to. I have registered cars that were abandoned when Nixon was in office with a hand written bill of sale. My cars were not stolen but I could see how easy it would be to steal one "create" a bill of sale that leads to someone who will back it, register it and give the owner the finger for his trouble.

I talked to my insurance agent and insured all my stuff. He has heard of this scam as well. My next step is tags. I always thought is was a waste to tag a parked car but I guess not. If the car is over 20 and registered to me they still don't have to have my signature on a bill of sale to register it but I have some leverage I can use to prove there paper work is false.



If you see an all original two tone Seafoam/Seamist green 55 Bel Air sedan with a little patina on it in Snellville feel free to pull the guy out and beat his ass to a bloody pulp.

That is all.

[Dickey]

What if your friend is mistaken about the car?

His father may have sold it or otherwise horse traded it and simply didn't remember. My grandfather had gotten that way in the years before his death. He gave my ex-wife his 2001 Buick when he quit driving. Shortly thereafter he swore he'd given me an old Volkswagen and depending on the time of day he was telling the story, the color would change.

[60Buick]

Looking for lies I can say for sure the guy has not owned it 15 years. I remember when they moved the car to the barn about 2-3 years ago. Before that I remember the car buried in boxes for as long as I've known them. I think it is odd the car was just bought by the current owner right about the time the car is missing. I know James dad Randy sold old tractors for a hobby and the car was in the barn with the tractors. I can almost bet you the guy that took that car from the barn was a "tractor friend" if you get my drift.

[chestypuller]

aint that a bitch.

[Scary Guy]

I hate the government for their incompetence. It's even worse though when they're a culprit in the plan. There was a club downtown in Detroit called The Labyrinth about ten years back. Across the street was a lot no one cared about and there was no one taking money for (this is where I generally parked). Right next door to The Labyrinth and The Leland Hotel (at that time a franchise of The Ramada) was another lot believed to be owned by The Ramada as well. Nope, turns out that patch of land had another owner.

Instead of asking for money or warning people one day a bunch of cars just get towed out of nowhere. To make things worse they do this on a Friday because the lot is closed over the weekend, adding two more days of impound fees. I wasn't there that night but heard about it on the forum they had at the time. It got referred to as "legalized grand-theft auto" which I thought was quite fitting.

[HearseHaunter]

I would call the news and see if they could run a story about it, if nothing else to warn people about this kind of theft.