So, the police stole my buddies car trailer...

[Baron Von Crowder]

Buddy of mine that I race with and share a shop with bought a car trailer off craigslist several years back. There's not titles on light trailers in texas, and this one didnt come anything on it, except an expired trailer tag from out of state. They got a home built plate, been using it for years.

He got stopped in Alvarado and the police seized the trailer, since they couldnt find a VIN on it. The trailer had new wood and a repaint before he bought it, and it seems that whatever vin sticker that was on it was removed.

Since they couldnt find a VIN on the trailer, it went to court, and they said since it appeared to be a manufactured trailer, and they didnt have a VIN or title, they will confiscate it.

He asked what will happen with the trailer, if he could get the tool box, winch, even our spare race car tires off the tire rack we had built for it, etc off. They said he could get some of it. The investigator said the trailer could be destroyed, sold at auction, or the department could keep it for their use. The investigator said that since this was a nice one, they would likely keep it for themselves...


It's just theft, and a whole lot of bullshit.

[46Tbird]

Welcome to Amerika, comrade.

[Broncojohnny]

Yep, welcome to property seizure in America. And the cops will swear up and down that there is no incentive for them to take things. Your buddy can sue but get ready to write some big checks.

[Baron Von Crowder]

Yep, welcome to property seizure in America. And the cops will swear up and down that there is no incentive for them to take things. Your buddy can sue but get ready to write some big checks.

That's the thing, assuming we can get the box and winch off of it, it was a thousand dollar trailer. His attorney said there wasn't much they could do, and Alvarado is well known for doing just this, and nobody wins in court.

They could have assigned a new VIN, and slapped him with a fine, and all would be good. I could understand that. But they took it, and now they will use it, like they have more right to have a trailer with no VIN than the public.

[Tremor14]

Amerikkka

[LS1Goat]

Any chance the VIN was written down on the bill of sale? Assuming there was one in the Craigslist transaction.

[slowturbocar]

Just cause you "own" it doesn't mean you own it. They can seize and take what they want and make it hell for you to get back, smaller cities seem to be worse. One of those cops will end of with it. I lost a fox body to Samson Park one time and it was in my name ...lol

[Baron Von Crowder]

Any chance the VIN was written down on the bill of sale? Assuming there was one in the Craigslist transaction.

I dont think so.

[Mach1]

What the fuck, my car hauler also doesn't have a vin, can they just take my shit too? Perhaps I should shoot them when they attempt the theft.

[Baron Von Crowder]

What the fuck, my car hauler also doesn't have a vin, can they just take my shit too? Perhaps I should shoot them when they attempt the theft.

It seems so.

[V3GA]

Buddy of mine that I race with and share a shop with bought a car trailer off craigslist several years back. There's not titles on light trailers in texas, and this one didnt come anything on it, except an expired trailer tag from out of state. They got a home built plate, been using it for years.

He got stopped in Alvarado and the police seized the trailer, since they couldnt find a VIN on it. The trailer had new wood and a repaint before he bought it, and it seems that whatever vin sticker that was on it was removed.

Since they couldnt find a VIN on the trailer, it went to court, and they said since it appeared to be a manufactured trailer, and they didnt have a VIN or title, they will confiscate it.

He asked what will happen with the trailer, if he could get the tool box, winch, even our spare race car tires off the tire rack we had built for it, etc off. They said he could get some of it. The investigator said the trailer could be destroyed, sold at auction, or the department could keep it for their use. The investigator said that since this was a nice one, they would likely keep it for themselves...


It's just theft, and a whole lot of bullshit.

Is your buddies name Tyler Hancock by any chance??

[Baron Von Crowder]

Is your buddies name Tyler Hancock by any chance??

No sir.

[DON SVO]

It wasn't stolen, it was re-appropriated.

[V3GA]

They did the exact same thing to my buddy a few months ago, except his was a charity bicycle team trailer...

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/metro/20150707-dallas-high-school-bike-teams-trailer-in-police-custody.ece

What started as a drive home from a high school mountain bike competition ended in a confiscated trailer and possible criminal charges against the team’s coach.

Members of the Dallas High School Composite mountain bike team were returning from Comfort in April when the two coaches were pulled over by Alvarado police for having the wrong registration tags for the trailer.

The officer determined the vehicle identification number had been purposely scratched off, an indicator of stolen property. The trailer was impounded after the coaches unloaded thousands of dollars’ worth of equipment. At a hearing June 8, a judge awarded the trailer to Alvarado police, who plan to auction it.

“There’s absolutely no way that I would’ve known” it was stolen, said Tyler Hancock of Allen, head coach and team director.

Hancock said he got the 16-foot trailer in September from his friend Grady Pace, a Plano man with a similar passion for mountain biking who wanted to support the team.

Pace said nothing seemed amiss when he purchased the trailer for $2,100 in 2010 from a man through a Craigslist ad. He said it appeared to have been in an accident and that several parts of the frame and hitch, where the VIN usually is located, had been replaced.

“The price was honestly not the best,” Pace said. “But it fit my needs, so it wasn’t like red flag signals were going off that this was probably not on the up-and-up.”

Pace later installed custom upgrades such as a shower, a kitchenette and rooftop solar panels.

When he no longer needed the trailer, Pace said, he donated the bulk of the cost — about $2,000 — as a charitable contribution. Hancock gave him $500.

Alvarado Police Chief Brad Anderson said Hancock admitted the trailer didn’t look homemade, as the registration indicated, and that Hancock changed his story about how much he paid for the trailer, from $2,000 to $500. Anderson said the trailer should have cost $4,000 to $5,000, and should have been registered as a manufactured trailer.

“It leads us to believe that he might have not known it was stolen, but he might as well put his head in the sand and continued to illegally register it and think no one would stop him or call him on it,” Anderson said.

He said the department is considering charges against Hancock, including a felony count of tampering with the trailer’s VIN and a misdemeanor count of failing to properly register.

Hancock said that when he took ownership of the trailer in 2014, he registered it with the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles as a standard nontitled vehicle, as it had been since 2006. When he handed the department the paperwork he’d received in the sale, there were no issues.

The trailer was awarded to Alvarado police because the original owner who had it stolen had moved to Florida and did not want it, and the insurance company had paid off the claim.

Though Hancock owns the trailer, Anderson said he “is a suspect in the possession of stolen property case.” He said that because the mountain bike team is not affiliated with a school district or the University Interscholastic League, there was no one else to turn the trailer over to.

The Dallas High School Composite Team, a local chapter of the Texas High School Mountain Bike League, was formed in 2014 and comprises a dozen kids from around Dallas.

Steve Jumes, a Fort Worth civil asset forfeiture attorney, said there is not a lot of recourse for the coaches.

If the original owner wanted the trailer back, “it would be sad for the coaches, but at least it makes sense,” he said.

He questioned why police or the city should get the trailer.

“Because the cop pulled the right guy over?” he said.

Since the team lost the trailer, Hancock said, they are basically back where they started — hauling gear in the back of a pickup.

“It’s been a huge setback,” he said.

The team planned to bid on their old trailer at the auction using money from a GoFundMe campaign started by Hancock’s friend Jason Falk. But that “leaves a bad taste in everybody’s mouth,” Falk said.

Instead, members hope to spend the money on a new trailer. They have raised about $2,300 toward their $5,000 goal.

[Sean88gt]

I keep having this feeling that the cops will find a group of "the wrong guy on the wrong day" that will respond to their theft properly.