Stolen Plate (California question),car is long since sold but DMV says its still mine

Sorry for the long winded post.

When I first moved out to Ca in 2005 I bought myself a 1959 Continental, it later blew the motor and I sold it shortly after registering it, still had the temp tag on it, had to mail the new plates to the new owner when they came in. I had the car non-oped when I sold it and I mailed in the change of ownership papers but I have still received renewal notices a few times since selling it. Now I have moved a few times since (was active duty Navy) and had a messy divorce and have as a result lost all records I had of this sale. All contact info I had for the guy I sold it to was in an Email account that my Ex-wife deleted out of spite.

Now to the point of all this:
I just got a notice of unpaid parking ticket from the city of Santa Monica from
October 5th 2011, the plates match the Continental that I sold but the ticket was issued to a black Saab. I was at home in San Diego when the ticket was issued (grocery shopping at Trader Joe's according to my bank). Santa Monica said to get a DMV print out showing I don't own the car. I'm thinking I get he print out and head to the Police Station and file a stolen plate report also.

The DMV says without the buyer's info there is no way to prove I no longer own the car.

Anyone dealt with this before?

Or anyone know someone in Long Beach that bought a flat black 1959 Continental 4 door with the breezeway rear window, white fuzzy angle hair dash and door panels, and a bent rod on the front cylinder of the p***enger side bank? Car was sold in San Diego and trailer'd to Long Beach I believe. Sold it in late '05 or early '06.

 

I would contact the city of Santa Monica and ask them how they issued a ticket to a Black SAAB on plates registered to a 1959 Lincoln, It would appear that they made an error and I would suggest to them that the ticket writer wrote the license plate number down wrong.
Unless they were personal plates, in which case they would have had to been registered to the SAAB. Something doesn't seem right.

 

Kalifornika, yeesh!
I call it DMV roulette. The outcome of any transaction with them is a toss up depending on whose window you get. Do not try to use reason, it will only confuse them.
I moved outa state to get away from the *******s. Good luck!

 

Crazy. I just got lucky with something just like this. I got a ticket in the mail for a parking violation in LA. The plate number was the one on my 55 but the make of car on the ticket was different. I live near sacramento and havent been to LA since last year. Luckily when I called the lady said the ticket had been paid.Whew! But she was weird about the fact I was calling on it and started giving me **** about the plate #. I said it was their mistake not mine and just got off the call as nice as possible, who knows what she would have been capable of with my plate #. Good luck man. I hope it works out for ya.

 

Yeah I already called them in Santa Monica and told them I've never owned a Saab and that plate is registered to a 1959 Lincoln. I mean they had to run the plate to get and address shouldn't the fact that the year make and model didn't match have set off some red flags like maybe stolen car or stolen plates?

They told me I have to send them the DMV print out but since the plates are still in my name it may not work that why I thought to file the police report on the plates.

 

carful, it is a scam, same thing happn'e to my buddys widow, contact Santa Monica and confirm, they won't issue a tickewt to black Saab with Lincoln plates, they will impound it, in fact her problem happned in Santa Monica, she lives in Pleasant Hill which is south bay, below SF, careful, DMV and Local law somtimes don't match. and all of the papers look legal

 

fill out a release of liability form, under new owner, write unknown. worked for me.

 

In California, parking cites are civil matters which is why they don't go to warrant. They only thing that can do is notify DMV, then DMV will withhold the registration on that plate. I believe it's 5 unpaid parking cites and the car can be impounded.

You can use the DMV web site to file a change of ownership, they recommend you keep the printout.

 

My 90 year old in laws got a parking ticket from Salt Lake City. We live in SoCal. They haven't driven for 10 years. They keep the car, so we can run errands for them, or if someone comes to visit, we can run them around town. 96 Buick, 24K on the odo. It rarely goes more than 10 miles from their house. I funny thing about the ticket, was all of the info on it was correct, vehicle, color, year, etc. We sent them a letterand told them we've never been to SLC in our lives (a lie, but that car has never left L.A. county). We never heard back from them

 

Its no different in Texas. I got a parking citation From Ft Worth 6 months ago saying I illegally parked an abandoned vehicle on the street. I live 300 miles away and it was a stolen van my ex wife had after divorce 10 yrs ago. It was loaned to our oldest daughter 9 yrs ago and it broke down on expressway never to be seen again. I sen t them info on details and they are still hounding me. They turned it over to a lawyer now. I told them to tow it and crush it.