Any Civil Attorneys here? Advice

GSPHUNTER said:
If it was only the $2700, it would not be worth it to get a lawyer involved. Depending on how much he paid for the vehicle, it may be worth it. but most states have laws regarding buying stolen property whether you are aware you received stolen property or not.. Generally you are SOL.. Something does seem weird though.
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The reason why it was never flagged in DMV is because stolen vehicles have a shelf life within DMV systems. After a certain amount of time they drop out of the system. NICB is forever. I recovered stolen vehicles from decades ago.

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@Marble

Thanks for weighing in. I know my son has had it insured for about a year. The person he bought it from bought it from a dealer, so I am guessing it had to be insured.....maybe not.

I would also imagine the police ran it through the nicb when they investigated the first time.

Am I garnering from your response that he should pursue the 2700 from the parts (no labor costs included)?

Edit to add: There is no prosecution in this instance, so I wouldn't imagine the DA is involved. They literally didn't even contact my son. Just took the car and he had to call them to find out what was up. Clarksville PD didn't even have any information other than they were contracted to pick it up by Nashville PD. He went to NV to speak to the investigating officer.
 
JF_Idaho said:
@Marble

Thanks for weighing in. I know my son has had it insured for about a year. The person he bought it from bought it from a dealer, so I am guessing it had to be insured.....maybe not.

I would also imagine the police ran it through the nicb when they investigated the first time.

Am I garnering from your response that he should pursue the 2700 from the parts (no labor costs included)?

Edit to add: There is no prosecution in this instance, so I wouldn't imagine the DA is involved. They literally didn't even contact my son. Just took the car and he had to call them to find out what was up. Clarksville PD didn't even have any information other than they were contracted to pick it up by Nashville PD. He went to NV to speak to the investigating officer.
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So dealers have a blanket insurance policy iirc, that covers all property. Not specific vehicles.

And what probably happened is an NICB investigator saw the flag and contacted LE.

And as far as the $2700, I would try to work out a deal with the owner. If that doesn't work, small claims.

Let a judge decide.

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grfox92 said:
Am I the only person who wants to know what kind of car it was?

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Haha it was a 77 Trans Am.

At first I thought I would be discreet on a public forum, but there is already enough info about the situation it would be pretty obvious to anyone involved.
 
JF_Idaho said:
I 100% agree. But in this case I would probably just tell him to file in small claims and let the judge sort it out.
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Where I am, Kentucky, my lawyer told me there's a $2000 max on small claims judgements. No idea about other states, and then you have legal fees to pay. If a lawyer spends much time at all, the bill will hit $1000.
 
Marble said:
So dealers have a blanket insurance policy iirc, that covers all property. Not specific vehicles.

And what probably happened is an NICB investigator saw the flag and contacted LE.

And as far as the $2700, I would try to work out a deal with the owner. If that doesn't work, small claims.

Let a judge decide.

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Thanks. That's where we are at. It seemed like for a minute they would work it out, but then he blocked him amd cut off contact.
 
UKwildcatfan said:
Where I am, Kentucky, my lawyer told me there's a $2000 max on small claims judgements. No idea about other states, and then you have legal fees to pay. If a lawyer spends much time at all, the bill will hit $1000.
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Crazy. Looks like 2500 now. Big difference from right over the border where it's 25k.
 
JF_Idaho said:
@arrowjunkie

My son actually has a (very hard to read) copy of the original police report that the guy had sent to him months back. It's hard to read, but is close to reading as being abandoned for a year+ in someone else's property before being reported stolen.

@Reburn

There was a time...... 🤣


It's just a crappy situation. Can't really be mad at either of them. It just is irritating. While by all means this guy should get his car back, there was a lot of "good faith" financial benefit he has received. The car was a piece of s when it was stolen. It's been painted and had numerous other work done. Must be nice.
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Kid's legal claims against original owner who reported it stolen would be "trespass to chattels" and "unjust enrichment" if the matter was in South Carolina. I try to stay out of Tennessee legal matters. TN has some of the shortest "statute of limitations" in the country.

There's a possibility landowner filed to obtain ownership due to abandonment and/or storage fees.
 
I hope that R700 I had stolen 25 years ago finally pops up.

With a new barrel, personal preference a Hawk Hill from a few years ago or a Bartlein, nice stock and premium glass.

Sheriff's department calls me every year to see if it's still missing, hopefully they are tracking the serial #.


@JF_Idaho I suspect your son is just shit out of luck. Best case would be proving who he purchased it from knew it was stolen property, but that can be pretty difficult, and likely in excess of the total cost he is out.
 
Crazy it went through a dealer.

I wonder when he reported it stolen and if it was after he saw the online posts.
 
Billy Goat said:
I hope that R700 I had stolen 25 years ago finally pops up.

With a new barrel, personal preference a Hawk Hill from a few years ago or a Bartlein, nice stock and premium glass.

Sheriff's department calls me every year to see if it's still missing, hopefully they are tracking the serial #.


@JF_Idaho I suspect your son is just shit out of luck. Best case would be proving who he purchased it from knew it was stolen property, but that can be pretty difficult, and likely in excess of the total cost he is out.
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There's hope! I had a handgun stolen in 2014. 2 weeks ago, I received a certified letter telling me Arizona DPS had some property of mine. Not knowing wth it could be, I called and sure enough, it was my handgun from 10 years ago. They recovered it 6 days after it was stolen and just a few weeks ago connected it's ownership to me. Mind you, I reported it stolen the day it was with serial #'s. I got it back, with the original galco holster and the same 13 bullets that were in it when it was stolen.
 
The latest trend I saw before retiring was switching public VINs on newer model vehicles. People would buy them from private sellers. They would have changed hands 3-4 times. The VIN usually would mathematically work on the DMV system, but when the vehicle goes in for a service, the dealership discovers the discrepancy and then contacts the owner.

I never followed up post-recovery of the vehicle to see if anyone got their money back, but I suspect no one did.

I saw people get taken for up to 40k. Pretty sad and devastating for some families.

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One of the common schemes in the Denver area is falsifying a legitimate sale immediately after the vehicle is stolen.

My buddy's truck got stolen while he and his family were out of state and when he got back and reported it stolen they pretty quickly discovered it was seemingly legally sold and already registered to a new owner. He had to jump through hoops to prove it was actually his before he got any help.

Speculation was that it was cartel related. After a few weeks when the truck was located it had been spray painted, wheels and tires swapped, and enough extra miles on it to have made a trip to Mexico and back.
 
HuntHarder said:
There's hope! I had a handgun stolen in 2014. 2 weeks ago, I received a certified letter telling me Arizona DPS had some property of mine. Not knowing wth it could be, I called and sure enough, it was my handgun from 10 years ago. They recovered it 6 days after it was stolen and just a few weeks ago connected it's ownership to me. Mind you, I reported it stolen the day it was with serial #'s. I got it back, with the original galco holster and the same 13 bullets that were in it when it was stolen.
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I know of a few people to get guns back years later.

One wasn't worth anything, basically found d under a log in the woods, could hardly get the serial # off of it.

Another guy got most of his back in a few weeks, but some of the high end shotguns had already rusted up a bit.
 
TaperPin said:
If someone steals your car, you’d want it back. Duh. Anyone who wants to make it as hard as humanly possible for the original owner to get his car back, isn’t much better than whoever snatched it originally.
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As someone who has had (by most people's standards highly modified) vehicles stolen... After a day or so, I don't want it back.

Got one back. It was rode hard and put up wet, engine went 2 days later.
 
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