This is a good point.
Just a question though, can he really be held liable if there was no intent or knowledge of what the vehicle was going to be used for? I mean, when thinking about filling out the four essential elements of a crime, it doesn't really fit.
Let me put it to you like this. Possession is 9/10ths of the law.
The Police is only one arm of the judicial system. The bureaucrats in office makes the laws, the police enforces the laws and the judge interprets the law.
The Police only wants to arrest someone and charge them with the illegal dope.
The dope dealer only wants to get out of trouble. - You don't fatally beat someone just because you don't like them, you beat them because they owed you money or took money out of their pocket. What ever they did to the person that lost their life, one of their friends will probably come to your house and do the same when they found out that you took his vehicle.
The police figures that if they call you and tell you that there is a free vehicle out here that you will call the rightful owner and they will come to claim their property, all fat, dumb and happy and the police can arrest them or you as soon as they / you move it.
Or you come and move it, and as soon as you take possession and say - yep it is mine, they arrest you and you get charged with transporting illegal narcotic's and possession with the intent to deliver, and go to jail and pay a lawyer to get you out of it. ( there is probably still dope in the vehicle)...
If you take possession of the vehicle and the owner comes back on your, then he can stop payment on the check he wrote you for the vehicle. Which if it was abandoned - probably has body and mechanical damage. Even if the police searched the vehicle, they probably trashed it trying to find what they were looking for. ( if you were in jail and looking for money for bail to get out, wouldn't you sell a vehicle you just bought? or use it for collateral?)
Most banks will not hand you more then a couple of grand at any one time and all car dealers in my area - Pennsylvania, by law has to call the FBI if you walk into a dealership with more then $10,000. ( So if this person paid you with cash, wouldn't a red flag go up?)
I had a interesting conversation once with two law enforcement officers (FBI) who wanted to know how i came to have $10,000 on my person.
If you sell the vehicle again, the person you sold it to the first time could take you to court for the value of the vehicle, even though he is in jail, not for what you sold it for, but for what he felt that it was worth.
You might end up owing him $20,000
Their lawyer might charge you $10,000 just for representing them, so add $20,000 to the $10,000 legal fee's and you could be out $30,000
In Pennsylvania, all transactions takes place at a car dealership or a notary public, which is where this transaction should have taken place in the first place. Then you would not be on the hook for all this legal stuff - like you are right now.
---------- Post added at 03:16 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:01 PM ----------
havent finished the thread yet but saw this and wanted to say +1
This kinda happened to me with a bmw i sold.. and i got it back legally.. couldnt find the owner.. and was still reg to me.. i got it back in better condition than i sold it.. and sold it again.. so i made like $12,000 off of a $6,000 car.. lol
---------- Post added at 01:24 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:19 PM ----------
Nope.. tow it home.. put a lien on him for the towing bill.. wait thirty days.. and its yours.. even if you didnt have the title.. so there you have title in hand and a legal upper hand if something DID happen.
Im not saying **** the dude.. but.. he has been driving on YOUR registar the whole time.. if he would have killed them in YOUR shit.. you could be held liable.. so i mean.. ... ... .....
In Pennsylvania, you cannot put a lien on a vehicle unless you have a license to finance.
You cannot possess a vehicle unless you have a salvage certificate or have a salvage license. So there is no way for you to take a vehicle that is not yours and take it back and sell it to someone else, because you do not have a clear title.
Even if you had a duplicate title, as soon as the person who bought it off you came back on you, you would be charged with theft of a motor vehicle.
There is some real unscrupulous people here.
I have sold over 100 vehicles in my life and I only ever had a problem
I once sold a vehicle to a guy from out of town and he needed the vehicle for school, and he said that he was going to send back to Philadelphia for his license plate and could I trust him for a couple of days on mine.
I lent him my plate and let the notary public transfer the title, but hold the title till his plate came in the mail. After two weeks, the notary public called me to tell me that he never returned to finalize the transaction and told me that he was still driving on my plates and insurance.
I went down to the magistrates office, which by the way - the person who bought the car, lived in a apartment above the office, took my plates and insurance card, since I still had a key to the vehicle. left a note on the front seat explaining that he needed to get his own insurance and plates as soon as possible and that the State Police had a pick up order on his plates that if he didn't put insurance on the vehicle immediately, he was going to jail for operating a vehicle with fraudulent plates and no insurance.
The next day, he called Safe Auto and had insurance and paid for new plates and I never saw him or the vehicle ever again.
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