Posted on 03/18/2009 3:41:45 PM PDT by Chet 99
A Richmond man was arrested at a Department of Motor Vehicles office when he tried to register a Buick that had been stolen in a carjacking, authorities said today.
Anthony Cooper Jr., 20, tried to register the car Tuesday at the DMV office on Manila Avenue in El Cerrito, police Detective Cpl. Susan Garman said.
Employees discovered during a computer check that the 1995 Buick LeSabre had been reported stolen during an armed carjacking in San Francisco. As Cooper waited in one of the DMV's lines, officials called police.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
...for a 1995 Buick? That is what bothers me.
Older Buicks sporting $3,000 hubcaps are popular among a certain demographic segment of the population.
How do they know the guy who jacked the car didn’t sell it to this guy...I need a used car because I am too scared to buy new and now I have to worry about this!
yea, but go for an Escalade....Imagine going to jail over a 1995 Buick.
If this guy’s innocent and bought the car from the “real carjacker”, he’s a fool of the highest order to fork over the money and not get the title papers (pink slip).
Use Carfax to check it out
True...the thing is though; how could you tell a fake pink slip from a real one? I’m not being a smart alec...I have to buy a car as I allowed my van to overheat and have probably damaged the engine...old Chevy with over 200,000 mile on it so not worth fixing really. A stupid hose broke and I didn’t notice the overheating until it was too late...hubby was not pleased. I had planned to buy from private owners as my husband works for GM and knows much about cars, but now I am worried.
Make sure you buy a vehicle by being signed over the title. This crook clearly didn’t have a title and must not have thought it’d be necessary.
Thanks! I will do this. I didn’t know about car fax. We have always bought new cars before this.
Thanks-good advice from all.
As soon as this was discovered these employees went on their lunch break. After lunch, they went on their smoke break. After their smoke break, they went on their coffee break. After their their coffee break, they called it a day. It wasn't until the next day that this was discovered.
When I was broke a couple years back and my (now ex) girlfriend needed a car, I bought one on the cheap from someone who was moving out of state that I knew through work. I didn’t think about it at the time, but it’s always a possibility the car is stolen. It was an old Buick, sort of like in this story. I guess make sure you know the person you’re buying from whenever possible.
If you buy your used car from a reputable dealer or a person you know more about other than, “He said his name was Bob,” you should be fine. As a cop, we charge people with Possession of Stolen Vehicle, because if you have to use a screwdriver to start it, and the guy only took cash, you probabaly should have figured something was wrong. You can also never go wrong with a Carfax report, or take the VIN to your local PD and have them run it for you! Just a little free legal advice!
Thanks again. I will follow your good advice. I want to find an honest grandmotherly type who only drove her car to church...you know!
Ahh the ideal car!! Just be careful, those kinds of cars tend to have problems as I’m sure that grandma didn’t get all her routine maintenance done as pertaining to proper maintenance schedules :)
But really, good luck! In almost every case, if the seller has a title, you’re at least clear on the stolen part. Running a Carfax is always a good idea to make sure the title’s clean (flood or body damage, etc).
This poor guy was just trying to get legal.
“If you buy your used car from a reputable dealer or a person you know more about other than, “He said his name was Bob,” you should be fine. As a cop, we charge people with Possession of Stolen Vehicle, because if you have to use a screwdriver to start it, and the guy only took cash, you probabaly should have figured something was wrong. You can also never go wrong with a Carfax report, or take the VIN to your local PD and have them run it for you! Just a little free legal advice!”
My stolen car story is during the sixties when someone left a car at our hippie house, after a week or two we started using it and did all our usual stuff in it, drugs, underage girls, etc.
After about two weeks of us using the car he showed up and we told him that we had been using his vehicle but that it had plenty of gas in it. He just laughed and told us it was a stolen car, it wasn’t his and he didn’t want it.
If we had been stopped or caught, I have to assume that our excuses and protestations would have amused the arresting officers.
That’s a pretty funny story and I think that you are right, and that you would have gotten alot of laughs out of the cops for that one!
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