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Stolen Vehicle?

 
 
Reply Fri 28 Oct, 2005 07:14 pm
I'm gonna try and make a long story short. A friend of mine put a car in her name a long time ago for her boyfriend. He had bad credit, he wanted this car and said he would make payments on it, and she had good credit and was in love blah blah, so she did.

He never made a single payment on the car. They broke up but the car is still in her name, and he is still driving it and not making payments on it. She has asked for the car back numerous times but he is refusing to give it back, and refusing to tell her where he is, so she really has no way of getting it. We went to the police station earlier to file a report and they said that she needs to get the car back, and that there is nothing they can do for her.

Is this true? This sounds to me like a stolen vehicle! The vehicle IS in her name. She legally owns it, right? It's legally hers, right? Can she file a stolen vehicle report or is there really nothing she can do about it? Thanks for reading this, I appreciate it.
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Type: Discussion • Score: 1 • Views: 1,339 • Replies: 27
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roger
 
  1  
Reply Fri 28 Oct, 2005 07:16 pm
I'm sure she can prosecute a lawsuit, but I'm betting the actual criminal charge will turn out to be conversion.
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roger
 
  1  
Reply Fri 28 Oct, 2005 07:18 pm
As an addendum, how is he keeping it registered and insured?
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Intrepid
 
  1  
Reply Fri 28 Oct, 2005 07:19 pm
Welcome to A2K, polomajik

Did she put the ownership and licence in her name, or only the credit application? Seems to me that if everything is in her name then it should be considered a stolen vehicle. Perhaps some of the legal experts could be of more help.
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Ticomaya
 
  1  
Reply Fri 28 Oct, 2005 07:36 pm
Hello, polomajik, and welcome.

I assume this is US? What State? Fair to assume there was no written agreement concerning their deal where he would make payments?

You said this happened a long time ago that she bought the car. How long ago? If the ex never made the payments, did your friend make the payments? If so, how many payments has she made? Who is she making payments to (bank, car lot)? How much is left to be paid on the note? What is the value of the car?

If this was happening in my State, I would say that if your friend has the title to the vehicle, and it is registered in her name, then she is the owner of the vehicle. If she has made demand upon her former boyfriend for possession of the car, and he has refused to provide her with the car, then I would argue he has stolen her property.

If your friend goes to the police station and lays out the long story about the agreement to title in her name, he makes payments, etc., it is possible the police would take the position that this is some sort of civil disagreement between your friend and her ex, and refuse to consider it a criminal matter. IMO, she should not do that. She should be of the mind that she is the titled owner of this vehicle, and she is entitled to possession of same. She should tell the police who she thinks has possession of her car, the last time she saw her car, and that he has refused to give her possession of it. They ought to report it as a stolen vehicle.
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Merry Andrew
 
  1  
Reply Fri 28 Oct, 2005 07:49 pm
Exactly. I was thinking along the same lines as Ticomaya, but didn't reply because I'm no legal expert. He is. It seems to me the thing was complicated by telling the police the whole long story. Simply go to the police and tell them the ex has stolen her vehicle. They are duty-bound to try and recover it (and arrest the perp in the process).
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polomajik
 
  1  
Reply Sat 29 Oct, 2005 02:27 pm
Man oh man, you guys are so nice to a n00b Smile. Thanks for all the quick replies. I appreciate it oh so much.


I'll try and answer as many questions as I can, however I don't have answers to all of them.

This is in the State of California.
I believe the car was purchase in February.
The car has been in my friends name and because she didn't want to get negative credit, she has been wasting her life savings paying off the car every month. ($500/month)
The car was $29,000 USED! It's a luxury car (a mercedes).
There was no written agreement about use of the car, or payments or any of that, it was all verbal.
Everything is in her name. The title to the vehicle, the credit report, etc etc.

So what the general concensus is, is that she should make a police report, saying that the ex has the car, he does not have a right to use it, he is not on the title of the car, he is refusing to give it back, leaving out that she agreed to put it in her name, etc etc?
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Ticomaya
 
  1  
Reply Sat 29 Oct, 2005 06:58 pm
polomajik wrote:
So what the general concensus is, is that she should make a police report, saying that the ex has the car, he does not have a right to use it, he is not on the title of the car, he is refusing to give it back, leaving out that she agreed to put it in her name, etc etc?


Yes. The part about her agreeing to put it in her name is immaterial. The point is she bought a car in February and allowed Mr. X to have possession of same for a period of time. She is no longer willing to allow him to have possession, and has made demand upon him for the return of her property. He has refused to do so. She considers the car as stolen, and needs to report it as stolen.
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polomajik
 
  1  
Reply Sun 30 Oct, 2005 07:23 pm
if she filed this stolen vehicle report after someone at the police station told her it wasnt something they could do anything about, couldnt that be filing a false report or something?
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Intrepid
 
  1  
Reply Sun 30 Oct, 2005 07:25 pm
How could it be false? It is true based on the information that you have provided.
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Slappy Doo Hoo
 
  1  
Reply Sun 30 Oct, 2005 07:31 pm
Oh my God.

Tell her to bring a copy of the registartion to the Mercedes dealer, get a new key made for the car, and then go get the f'n car.
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polomajik
 
  1  
Reply Sun 30 Oct, 2005 07:42 pm
She doesnt have the $300 or whatever it is to get a new key made for the mercedes. They're lazer keys, they're not cheap
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goodfielder
 
  1  
Reply Sun 30 Oct, 2005 07:53 pm
She really has to find out if this is a crime or not. I am not familiar with the California Penal Code and so I can't give any idea about it but if the police are reluctant to do anything about this then they must have a very good reason. This is an extract from the California Penal Code.

Quote:
484. (a) Every person who shall feloniously steal, take, carry, lead, or drive away the personal property of another, or who shall fraudulently appropriate property which has been entrusted to him or her, or who shall knowingly and designedly, by any false or fraudulent representation or pretense, defraud any other person of money, labor or real or personal property, or who causes or procures others to report falsely of his or her wealth or mercantile character and by thus imposing upon any person, obtains credit and thereby fraudulently gets or obtains possession of money, or property or obtains the labor or service of another, is guilty of theft.


I stress I know nothing about this law. But that phrase I have italicised sort of stands out for me. In the common law this is a bailment and someone stealing property as a bailee has been a crime at common law since the 15th Century (The Carrier's Case). My reading of that phrase suggests it's meant to encompass what used to called at common law "larceny as a bailee".

But even if the situation you describe isn't a crime under the Penal Code of California then your friend should seek the advice of a lawyer in California. Again I have no idea of the law in California but again at common law there was a tort called detinue (some jurisdictions have abolished it as a tort) where an individual could sue to regain their property in circumstances where it wasn't stolen but which was lent.

Just did a bit of googling and apparenty detinue is known in California:

Quote:
Detinue -

Tort involving the defendant's retention of property belonging to the plaintiff after the plaintiff has demanded its return. The plaintiff may seek damages for the period of possession, even without proving any actual loss.


There it is. Your friend may need to discuss this with a lawyer as well as/instead of with the police.
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Slappy Doo Hoo
 
  1  
Reply Sun 30 Oct, 2005 08:04 pm
polomajik wrote:
She doesnt have the $300 or whatever it is to get a new key made for the mercedes. They're lazer keys, they're not cheap


I thought they were more like $150. Not sure what the laser key is. Either way if it's $300, if she can't afford that, putting a $30K car in her name wasn't exactly bright. Not that you defended her decision to do so anyway.

The way I look at it, $300 is a very small investment to get a $30K car that YOU OWN back in your hands. A lot cheaper than a lawyer.
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Merry Andrew
 
  1  
Reply Sun 30 Oct, 2005 08:07 pm
Slappy, you actually made sense! Watch it. We'll start to expect that from you now.
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Intrepid
 
  1  
Reply Sun 30 Oct, 2005 08:22 pm
I may be wrong, but I thought that they had to access the computer module before a new key would work. At the very least, the key must be left in the ignition for an hour or so to synch with the computer. A dealer could answer this.
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Slappy Doo Hoo
 
  1  
Reply Sun 30 Oct, 2005 08:23 pm
Intrepid wrote:
I may be wrong, but I thought that they had to access the computer module before a new key would work. At the very least, the key must be left in the ignition for an hour or so to synch with the computer. A dealer could answer this.


Or I can answer it: no. You can have a copy cut with proof of ownership, i.e., license and registration.
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Intrepid
 
  1  
Reply Sun 30 Oct, 2005 08:24 pm
Thanks for the clarification, Slappy
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roger
 
  1  
Reply Sun 30 Oct, 2005 08:27 pm
Dunno. I can get a Ford key for around $30.00 and program it myself, up to 10 times. Beyond that, it gets expensive, and may not be require the presence of the car.
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Slappy Doo Hoo
 
  1  
Reply Sun 30 Oct, 2005 08:33 pm
Well you have to program the keyless entry, but not for the key to work. At least I've never seen that.

MA, when do I not make sense?

I love lamp!
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