3 replies to this topic

[minidaves]

this post is true, and we may not get our loss back because we did not use something like smart water, but, back in 2003 a mini estate was stolen from me, it was a customers car, he got paid and we thought that was the end of it, got an email last week june 2015, saying i think i have found me car, and behold he had, its been rung, and the current owner has purchased the mini in good faith, the police have gone to look at it, and are going to let me know if they can find anything that proves it the vehicle in question, if they can we get it back,if they cant it becomes a civil matter.  so please use smart water or something to protect your property as you never know when it might just show up

 

 

[ibrooks]

You don't specify how the owner was paid out. If it was an insurance company that paid out and the car is recovered then it will belong to the insurance company. Only if you paid the owner out of your own pocket will the car belong to you.

 

Iain

[Carlos W]

The point is, if you can prove the car is yours, it proves it's stolen.

 

Doing something unique and secret means you can say to the police, look in such a place and you will find........

[ibrooks]

Yes certainly and with my most special car there's not a hope in hell that any pond life would be able to sell it on as it's such a small market and mine is unique in so many ways that it would be instantly spotted by me or anyone else in the owners club. There are also some things that no-one else knows about but I have photos of.

Although I do know of at least one unique car that went missing when a garage it was at for work went under amid some "odd" financial circumstances and customers cars and parts were never recovered - we can only assume that it was broken for parts somewhere and the body was weighed in. It was one of maybe a hundred produced (and low single figures outside the UK) with totally unique features within it's peers. It's never been seen since and the owners register know about it so if it popped up somewhere there's not much chance it wouldn't be spotted.

 

What I was getting at is that even if the original owner or the original poster here manage to prove that this car is the one that was stolen then the chances of either of them getting it back are minimal. I'd assume the most likely scenario at the time was that an insurance company paid out so it becomes their property if it's recovered. In reality the insurance company want a quiet life and on something relatively low value like a Mini they will have pretty much written it off as a loss so assuming the person that currently has it isn't proven to be the thief (and the original post states that the current "keeper" bought it in good faith) then the insurance company will likely offer it to them at a silly low price just to get some money back without having to mess around recovering the thing and spending time (which is money to them) selling it for not a lot more. Will the police be able to go back any distance to tell who rung it? doubtful. Unless it's immediately and glaringly obvious who did it then the chances are that the pond-life will get away with it.

 

Iain