“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!