http://apps.dmv.ca.gov/images/vr/regcard_w_arrow2.jpg
You have sent in registration forms that did not include the VIN?
I never have.
Where I grew up, people found out they had bought a stolen car fairly frequently when they went to register it.
The guy who fixed this car up lost it while trying to ship it to another continent.
I suspect he knew it would be discovered if he tried to register it.
That is not even close to what I said. If you want to address what I said, let me know.
If you had read the article (not the linked article, but the part excerpted on this site) you would have seen this:
Wilson said he found out the car has gone through several owners since it was stolen, and he feels bad for the seller and buyer, who likely did not know it was stolen property.
Your assumptions are very, very unlikely to be the true state of affairs. Much more likely is that the current holder of the (bad) title bought from someone who was also holding what appeared to be clean title, then sent that title to DMV and got a new title. Even the legal owner, the guy who it was stolen from, feels bad for that guy. Somewhere along the way, probably decades ago, the stolen car obtained a new title that any purchaser would not know was for a stolen car. And anyone after that who bought it would have no way to know it was stolen if DMV didn't tell them.
Don't know why you are so eager to pin it on a guy who was far down the chain from the original thief, but I feel for a guy who put so much effort into restoring an old beauty, only to learn that, due to the state's incompetence, it was a stolen car. I hope he is able to at least get something under an "unjust enrichment" theory.
