i know i know there is words at the start of this thread but trust me its a good read, plus there is pictures at the end LOL. also its only about 20 years off topic so about 2 years ago i built this cool *** little shop truck. 85 chevy c10 ( paint, custom tailpan, custom grille, shvaed all the emblems and mirrors off, lowered it about 10 inches blaq blah ect.ect.) anyways i drove this truck for probably 6 monthes before i sold it. i loved this truck but needed something alittle more practical for a shop truck ( doesnt really ride the smoothest! ) and didnt get around in the snow. so i put it on craigslist and it was on there for only 3 whole hours before i sold it to some fat white kid from iowa who drove down with his parents and paid me 3500 cash. heres where my stupid move was, i left the plates on the truck so he could drive home and wouldnt have to tow it ( BIG MISTAKE dont ever do that!) So about a year and half p***es and i get a letter in the mail that the truck was in a hit and run in kansas city, missouri and my plates were on it. luckily eye witnesses saw him and he was a younger black guy ( not me LOL) so i call the cops and tell them the story and they say no problem yada yada ect. i called the kid i sold it to and he said he sold it and didnt have the guys number he sold it to. so i asked the cop what i could do to take my name off the plates and the cop says dont worry about it becuase they are going to arrest the driver so about 6 monthes after that i get a parking ticket for the truck from kansas city, Kansas. i call and tell them they story and how the missouri cop said it was no big deal, well in kansas its my responseablity and im a dumb*** for leaving my plates on when i sold it, and no matter what i can ether pay the ticket or come to court and plead my case to the judge. WTF? so after *****ing and moning for a month i just paid the damn ticket. and then filed stolen plates with the st.joseph police. so about a month after that the kansas city police calls me and tells me that my plates have been found on an old truck and were taken off and were at the police dept. and i could come get them whenever. that made me feel good that the douchebag couldnt keep driving around with my plates. so about another month after that ( last week) i get a notice from a tow company that they have an 85 chevy truck and after running the v.i.n. number it appears that i am the ***le holder. 2 years and 3 different owners and none of them ever switched it over to their own name!!! so if i can show registration ( or the lost ***le form i had to fill out) i can pick the truck up for the tow fee!!! so 400 bucks later and my truck is back home!! the pictures are from today, real excited to have this back to drive around for fun this summer, before selling it again of course p.s. its a good story but not a fairy tale apparently in the last 2 years none of the idiot owners ever put oil in the motor, so its junk. i mean literally had NONE in it. but its just a 350 and we all know those motors are cheap and easy, that kinda sounded dirty. LOL
You never got registration renewal notices from you DMV? Or sent in a release of reliability when it was sold?
the plates are still good they expire march of 09. never claimed it for personal property tax . that was the only form i ever recieved for it.
So the moral of the story is-pull off your plates, s****e off your stickers and check your state laws regarding the sale of a vehicle. Some states require you to officially transfer ownership at the time of the sale.
you cant believe how many car buddy's i have told make sure the ****ing plates are off when they sell . LOL
nope it must of been a small front end hit because there is some paint on the bumper but nothing bent or dented. when the tow lot told me i could come get it, i actually when to look at it first ,for that very reason, i thought it might be half totaled and didnt even know if i wanted it.
My brother sold a 67 Mustang to a guy in the Air Force. He paid for the car and drove it for a few months and then went AWOL. He left the car at the airport. The airport parking lot called him after it had been there for 6 months or so and told him to come get it or they would tow it. He went there and pumped up the tires, paid the lost ticket parking fee and drove the car home. Later he sold it again .... and yes you guessed it. He sold it to another guy in the Air Force. He tells the story now and says that even though he got paid twice that he would give all the money back to have that car again.
Back in about 83 or 84, my Dad fixed up and sold a '52 Chevy pickup to a guy. The guy came to the house, paid my Dad and took the truck with the ***le. About 6 months went by and my Dad got a call from the Las Vegas impound yard saying they have his truck. My Dad explained to them that he sold it, they said no, it's still in his name. So he went to the impound yard and got the truck out for like $150. Turns out the guy who bought it had some engine trouble. While messing with it, he dropped the wingnut for the air cleaner in the carb. Put a whole in one of the pistons and he abandoned the truck on a side street and never went back for it. My Dad put another 235 in it, gave it another paint job and sold it to my brother in law. Sometimes it pays to leave your plates on.
I sold a 66 F250 about 15 yrs ago to a guy in the next town over. I let him use the plate to get it home. Long story short, he kept the plate and didn't transfer the ***le. I played hell tracking him down, but finally found out where he lived. Drove by his house and saw the truck in his carport. I went and knocked on the door, no answer. I went and tore my plate off it and took off. I called a buddy of mine who's in the FHP and told him the story. He, along with another trooper drove to the guy's house the next day and this time the guy answered the door. They asked why there was no plate on the truck? He stalled for a bit then finally fessed up. He promised he would do all the necessary paperwork as soon as possible. This wasn't good enough for them. They told him they were going to lunch and when they came back the truck had better be legal with a proper tag on it or they were towing it.He said he didnt have time right then and my buddy said you've had 4 months. They had pulled one cruiser right behind it so it couldn't move and told him under no cir***stances was he to touch that cruiser. They came back 2 hrs later and he was legal. I've never repeated that mistake again. Also, I make certain that the ***le is transferred in my presence anymore. Pain in the *** but worth the piece of mind.
Same deal with me on a '67 Buick GS340. It was one of those 'hey, want to sell your car' things and that day I just happen to be in the mood to let it go. We struck a deal and I had cash in hand about 1 hour later and the car was his. But, something just told me to get my *** down to the DMV pronto and file the release of liability. One thing is he signed his girlfriends name to the ***le as he said he was giving it to her as a present. I was thinking, 'ok right, yeah, I'm sure that is what you are planning'. But I got cash and that is his problem to deal with - not going to be mine. It was a Sat. and and the DMV was still open, so I hopped on the next bus and was over there in an hour filing my forms. Good thing, the parking tickets started rolling in about a month later and the first one started the very next day after I sold it to him. I would have been responsible for any tickets before my filing date. Good thing I didn't even wait until Monday. And like you, about 9 mos. later, I get a letter saying the car had been impounded for a bunch of unpaid tickets and they said they now realize that I was the former owner and not the current, but since the new owner never registered it and they don't know who it is, they wanted to know if I wanted to pay off the tickets and get the car back. I sold it for $1800 and the tickets were $750 so it would have been a good deal. But, I decided to p*** as the guy who bought it was a bit sketchy and who knows what might happen if he saw me driving around in the car again. So, I just let it go and it was either auctioned off or crushed. I have no idea what condition it was in either as I never even went to look. Might have been trashed anyway. At least here in CA, the plates are not the issue, it is the release of liability form for it that needs to be filled out and filed asap. I highly recommend doing that as I sure learned first hand why that is a good idea.
The Jalopy Journal
