Mustang owner reunited with his stolen car ...

Yea, I forgot about the pawn shop deal. We had a pressure washer stolen from where I work, it turned up a few days later at a local pawn shop. We could buy it back for $250! By then my boss had already replaced it.

 

You just have to protect those businesses! My brother had a gun stolen - it was listed on the hotlist which pawn brokers have - and he had to buy it back too. It doesn't work that way for the general public though.

 

I have a hard time thinking that we have to protect pawn shop owners.

In these days of digital cameras, etc, I think that if someone were to come into a pawn shop to sell something over, say $100, they should be photographed, and fingerprinted. If the item is legit, that should be no problem for the seller.

Having to pay a pawn shop owner to get your stolen property back just seems we are rewarding property theft.

Regarding the Mustang, what makes that situation difficult is that the woman and her dad weren't thieves. The car lot and the guy who stole it are the ones that need their butts kicked.

 

Painttank. Your opinion is he should not get the car back.

According to the story and the law. it is his car, period. if he didnt have insurance back when it was stolen, he is not a dumba$$. the law was different back then. it was NOT required. the car was stolen.

i dont care who it was given to, or taken by, whether or not the person who stole it put in 150,000 into it, the car was not his/hers to begin with.

PERIOD

the car should go to the person who owned it when it was stolen from. the person who stole it is a thief, and should be sent to jail for the crime and the car should go back to the original owner.

if it was my car, i would expect the same thing

 

But she didn't steal the car, they bought it off a used car lot.

 

They bought STOLEN merchandise. They lose.
That the legal and moral way.

 

Do you think if she actually knew the car was stolen she would attempt to sell the car almost 38 years later? She found out something was wrong with the VIN and is doing what she feels is right.
Both parties are victims in this case. The original thief has stolen from two different people almost 38 years apart. And if the thief was the car dealer then he stole three times. If the lady was like a typical car owner and didn't love that car we wouldn't be discussing this as the car would likely have been scrapped years ago.

The part that gets me is that he is getting his car back after all these years and he is upset because the car has been painted Blue.

 

I guess I'm somewhere in the middle

I guess I have two opinions. I think the LAW is that he should get his car back - it is rightfully his. There should not be a question of ownership here. No way should she own it, it's stolen property

But this is a unique situation. I think that if the guy had any decency, he would "buy" it from her. As a car guy, I can understand the love of a good car. She obviously loved this car for 4 decades - that's cool. I would think that he would understand this and compensate her for "taking care of his car" for the last 38 years. Paying her something should not be obligated by law, but something he should WANT to do. If this happened to me, that's what I would want to do. The last thing I would do is complain about the color but be glad that someone has taken care of it this long. I'm not saying this would be a large sum of money, but something reasonable.

Speaking of decency, she obviously has some. She is voluntarily giving the car back and agrees that it is the right thing to do. If I was him, that would encourage me to pay her money even more. She never knew it was stolen and sounds like a good, honest woman.

They were both victims as mentioned above. The party at fault is the theif and/or car dealer (fat chance finding them now).

My opinions are for this unique situation only and should not be applied to other theft stories.

 

I agree with that 100%

 

Absolutely agree 110%. Could not have said it better. That's kind of the thing that made me go too. He's getting the car back after nearly 40 years, and the only thing he does is complain that it's been repainted and the engine has been replaced... :16suspect Geez, most cars of that age would have scrapped years ago, he should just be happy he is getting it back and it's in decent condition!

 

I wonder if anyone ever ate ice cream in it?
Dan

 

I would hope he's going to pass it down to someone in his family that is an auto enthusiast. It would be a shame to see some kid get it that's gonna rag it out. The car has made it this far, and it has a fairly interesting history, so I'd like to see it stay a survivor.

 

Maybe we'll see it on Ebay.

 

Stolen property is contraband.

 

Paintank,
Im sure if your comet was stolen, you would want it back.
Even if it was 38 years later.
As for the insurance, it was 5 years old when it was stolen.
No one had thieft insurance on a 5 year old car.
They were paid off in 2 or 3 years. When it was stolen, it was just and old car.
I hope the old man has fun with HIS old Mustang.