Gahhh my toy was a ringer...

[hairytriker]

So here's a "caveat emptor" to anyone buying an ATC (or any toy for that matter). Always make sure the frame & engine numbers are real and original, not just a well stamped fake. I found this out to my dismay a couple of days back when some self rigteous prig decided to call the police as I was testing out the effect of cleaning & tuning the carb. All was well, the sergeant who attended was very understanding & they were going to just give me a warning until they put the frame & engine numbers throught the computer & it didn't exist. On closer inspection you could actually see the file marks under the paint so I had to concede that it was stolen & let them take it away.

The thing that hurts most about this though is that, as the numbers have been changed, they cannot locate the actual owner (if they could I'd have been most happy to return the thing myself, having had a bike stolen myself a few years back) so they're just going to crush the damn thing. What a fecking waste of a perfectly good ATC. :mad: :mad: Still, just wait till I find out who decided to call the law & it will NOT be a pretty sight... Hoosier Daddy Deepa

[Frankencelery]

You didn't KNOW it was stolen, did you?

Dunno if I agree with their action. While it pretty obvious that a machine with the VIN filed off is stolen, it seems crappy that they just take it when they can't verify what the original VIN is. I guess if they didn't, then it would encourage people to just grind off the VIN and claim ignorance.

Still sucks though. Sorry to hear you lost your machine. How about taking it out on the seller? Do you have access to his sorry ass? I think I'd have to have a "conversation" with him!

[mohadib]

That sucks man. Hope you pointed them to the bloke you got it from. Thanks for the heads up.

[Lukeatc185]

if you had a bill of sale or ownership they cant just take it away right away.

[plastikosmd]

this brings up a question i have...so say i want to check the vin on 3 of my bikes...go to the police station?

thanks

[Jonpin]

Thats what im saying is there a way to run them online .

[Macs]

Police station or DMV.


I wander if you told them that it had an aftermarket frame and it has never been titled or registered. What could they do then?????

They will not crush it, what they will do is assign it a VIN and then auction it off after the holding period. You have to prove that it is yours ( since they cannot prove ownership ) before the holding period expires. Which in Texas is 60 days i think. The reason they took it is because ownership cannot be proved.


Email from a friend when i was trying to get my stuff back last year,

"When i got robbed a few years ago, i had a similiar issue. I could not prove ownership on half the things they recovered. I had to put together a case, with all bill of sales, any ownership history, proof of how long i had the bike etc. I ended up getting all of them back but two this way. One was actually reported stolen in the 80's and claimed on insurance. I bought it back from the insurance for $200 with a clear title now. Another one had no numbers, by the time someone had suggested that i claim it was a custom build, that has never been registered or titled or assigned a VIN it was already gone. So i suggest you try this route. Keep in mind though you will be responsible for towing and storage fee's."


I just noticed you were in england so my advice probley will not work.

[Hair Bear Bunch]

I'm a bit baffled by this. If it wasn't road registered then of course it won't be on the PNC database. I think you need to be doublechecking with your local force and make sure those who confiscated it were genuine police, then start asking questions as to why they think it's stolen. It can't be stolen if it's not been reported stolen. You'll probably find someone somewhere is trying it on ("Hello friendly policeman. There's a guy up the road making a bit of noise with his bike. Can you take it off him? Thanks."). Talk to your family solicitor, the police should have to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the machine is stolen and that you are not the rightful owner.
I've got 3 tractors here, I can absolutely guarantee they won't appear on the PNC. My 70 has an engine from an old cub in it, that will show up as it was road registered, but the frame it's in now is an aftermarket so no frame no.
Make sure it's being stored under cover, any damage to it before it's returned to you is their responsibility.
Don't sweep this under the carpet, the longer you leave it they'll think they've got away with it. Challenge it at every level, even the Police complaints comission if neccessary.
Good luck.

[Hoosier_Daddy]

You guys seem to be missing that the original poster is from England. They can't do that to us here in the states to the best of my knowledge, and I'm currently going to school for criminal justice/law enforcement. If the vin does not exist then they can't prove it was stolen any more then you can prove it's yours. The British government is socialist while we are not. Not yet anyway. And our law enforcement doesn't have the power to confiscate anything from us without proof of ineligible ownership. In other words, our government can't take away our belongings based on an assumption. There is no laws that force us to register the vins of our off road vehicles. The only time it is required is if you want to register it to ride on government land etc.

That being said, I feel bad for you hairytriker. I hope Obama fails in his attempt to make our government more like the British.

[Jonpin]

You guys seem to be missing that the original poster is from England. They can't do that to us here in the states to the best of my knowledge, and I'm currently going to school for criminal justice/law enforcement. If the vin does not exist then they can't prove it was stolen any more then you can prove it's yours. The British government is socialist while we are not. Not yet anyway. And our law enforcement doesn't have the power to confiscate anything from us without proof of ineligible ownership. In other words, our government can't take away our belongings based on an assumption. There is no laws that force us to register the vins of our off road vehicles. The only time it is required is if you want to register it to ride on government land etc.

That being said, I feel bad for you hairytriker. I hope Obama fails in his attempt to make our government more like the British.

If Obama fail America wins. "sorry for the politics"

[TrailerRider]

US or not, if you have a bill of sale, bring it to them and possibly get your stuff back or the theif will get his due..

[Hair Bear Bunch]

You guys seem to be missing that the original poster is from England.
Well aware of that!

[Hoosier_Daddy]

Well aware of that!
My intent was not to insult. I was simply pointing it out, because the laws are very different because of the two styles of government. :)

[Hair Bear Bunch]

My intent was not to insult. I was simply pointing it out, because the laws are very different because of the two styles of government. :)
NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! Oh dear, the shortcomings of the internet.
No offence meant or taken, I should have used some smilies.:)
What I was getting at was that we're only to painfully aware that a lot of our laws do seem to go against pure common sense.
:rolleyes:
Sorry, off topic. :beer

[Hoosier_Daddy]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! Oh dear, the shortcomings of the internet.
No offence meant or taken, I should have used some smilies.:)
What I was getting at was that we're only to painfully aware that a lot of our laws do seem to go against pure common sense.
:rolleyes:
Sorry, off topic. :beerOk. It's all good. I hope to be able to visit the Uk someday. It's on my "to do" list.

[BigRed_Ryno]

As long as you've got a receipt to say you paid for it, its good enough.


Ok. It's all good. I hope to be able to visit the Uk someday. It's on my "to do" list.

Be sure to bring your waterproofs :cool:

[99gsxr750]

That sucks. I'm in a similar situation. After having my trike for the past three years, I have recently noticed there is no VIN on it.


There is no laws that force us to register the vins of our off road vehicles. The only time it is required is if you want to register it to ride on government land etc.

Pa requires you to title and register your ATV regardless whether or not you ride on government land/parks. The only exemption is if it's for agricultural use and I think business use.

[Hoosier_Daddy]

That sucks. I'm in a similar situation. After having my trike for the past three years, I have recently noticed there is no VIN on it.



Pa requires you to title and register your ATV regardless whether or not you ride on government land/parks. The only exemption is if it's for agricultural use and I think business use.
I wasn't aware that PA put those laws into effect. That means that there are likely other states with similar laws. I do know that in PA snowmobiles that are older than 2001 do not require registration. I don't know if that may pertain to any ATVs or not though.

Even still, the bottom line, and my point is, that even if you buy an ATV and never register it, the only thing that will happen is you get a fine for not registering it. Law enforcement does not have the power to tell you that your ATV is stolen simply because it was never registered and then confiscate it. They just can't do that in the USA.

[hairytriker]

Cheers for all the replies & thanks to those who noticed I'm in the UK where the system works "a bit differently" to the US. They were certainly genuine police (6 officers, a Sergeant & a dog in a riot van, plus a PCSO on a pushbike FFS!)

There's not much doubt that it's been stolen at some point although it wasn't by the PO or the one before that (I've known them both & also the trike for more than a couple of years, hence I didn't see the need for a bill of sale.) and while I'm sure there were maybe one or two bits of protocol not followed to the word by the lawmen, I'm not really in a position to contest things too much due to certain issues which I'm not going to discuss in too much depth. Suffice to say I was more than happy for them to take the trike in place of myself... whoever they think I may be... :naughty:

And I most certainly didn't even suspect the trike to be stolen or have it's ID tampered with (it looked real but doesn't come up on the checker thingy on here either). If I thought that then I'd have advised the PO not to buy it, as I went to look over it with him when he bought the thing.

Whatever happens to it now, no-one's going to be riding round on it again unless they do a bit of "research" into what I did to it while waiting for the recovery vehicle, aside from taking back the fuel & parts I'd bought & fitted...

Anyway, if one person gets out of buying themself a raw deal from reading this then I'm satisfied. :TrikesOwn and I'll be having another one day for sure.

[mohadib]

lol harry, i have been in that same boat. bench warrants are a trailprotrailprotrailprotrailprotrailpro :D

[Threes company]

back when I was a kid......... a buddy of mine had his mini-bike "confiscated" by the local police because it was unregistered and we were riding on the city street (I'm sure about 10 other things were wrong also)... they literally put the bike in the trunk of their cruiser and drove away, keep in mind we were 11 or 12 at this time. well the bike mysteriously ended up a few neighborhoods away with a certain officers son riding it. My buddys dad was friends with a few of the local cops and managed to get it back......... this was back when I lived in Mass. Just wanted to say you never know where your 3 wheeler may actually "end up" no matter who takes it away.

[mohadib]

a lot of cops are nothing more than paid thugs.

[hairytriker]

Well I doubt that'd happen round here (not in this day & age anyhow), but if it did you can be sure I'd confiscate it back, after giving the rider full "payment" of course...

[mohadib]

payment == black eye? :D

[ATC-Eric]

What type of bike was it?

[Dirtcrasher]

It's not right, even in the US, but I imagine they'd simply argue that "the VIN has been altered, prove it's yours or were taking it".

[Lukeatc185]

realistically, its not prove its yours or were taking it. its prove its not stolen. well you nor they cant prove it at this point. so feed them some BS about it. you can also tell them you built it from the ground up. and these are all parts bought from misc places. they cannot just take something even if theres no registered owner. if you went and made a scene. and started preaching. you will get it back. you'll probably have to pay a lot fee from them taking it and storing it. effing crooks.