Sad Story - so wrong

I hope this is not censored and removed as it does serve a warning for members of this site, importing from overseas

This E-mail was sent to me from the UK.

"I have just found out some rather disturbing news regarding a couple of Split Screen Van members who decided to ship in a bus from the US.Nothing too sinister or dangerous in that I here you say, people are doing it all the time. well yes they are, however sometimes things can go a little pear shaped in this case very very pear shaped.The members bought the bus from a reputabkle bus dealer/restoration guy in California, the plan was for him to fix up the bus i.e do all the welding, prep, lower and narrow the front beam, IRS, engine re fresh along with a set of JGE Raders, all on a '61 logo'd panel van.
Having followed the progress of the bus , I was quite excited about seeing it here in the UK. cos its a cool bit of kit.
As the shipping date arrived and passed I called the SSVC members to see how it was all going? the reply was 'its not'
It turns out the US custos has its own seperate data base as well as the DMV (transpot Dept) and according to the US customs, the bus was stolen!! Not only that but the original owner was contacted and he wanted his 61 bus back, although it was a non runner and an un-driveable state before being restored. The members tried to reach a financial agreement with the owner, however he refused.
You are probably thinking why did they buy a bus without the title papers, well they idnt, the bus came with all the appropriate papers and was totally legitimate, or appeared to be.
It turns out the US customs data base is more thorough than the DMV, to cut a long story short they have lost thier dream bus and a certain person now has the bus back totally restored.
Even though he is totally within his rights to have the bus back, he really should have comne to some ammicable agreement.
This whole thing stinks!!!"

thats tragic but ive heard of it happening here.

that stinks !

lol...so the bloody poms got suckerd😉
>But realy it is sad and this happens and if you think it won't happen to you in your life time your very wrong.

I heard a local story like that years ago.

A young bloke pulled a car out of a paddock, restored it, but when he went to register it, it turned out to be hot.
It was returned to the bloke it had been stolen from 20 years before.

I always thought it was an urban legend.

Bad news, & you wouldn't have a leg to stand on.

Sounds a bit suss to me. An unlikely scenario. Maybe the guy just wanted his van restored free of charge. Maybe it's not true at all, like Spook said, an urban legend. If it is true I'd feel sorry for the victims but I'm sure there is something legal they could do. The other party would have to be a bit of an arsehole if they didn't pay for the resto...

[Edited on 21/4/2005 by EgeWorks]

Still, ownership is ownership. The original owner who had it stolen from is very much entitled to have his/her bus back. It was found!! although in another country or not, it is theirs to have back.

Sure the original owner might have paid some of the resto, but he is not obligated too.

It just goes to show that you can never have too much paperwork to prove ownership and being a imported item from OS the last thing you need it a old owner waiting to claim it back.

It sucks that it was stolen from them in the first place, but that is life. Protect your precious bus/bug and keep the bastards from stealing your pride and joy.

The owner should not have to pay a cent for the resto ,good luck to him.
But I would have thought, the resto people who sold something that was not theirs, should give the silly poms all their money back.
It really is that simple
Still, it does give the Poms something else to winge about.

I suppose if you put yourself in the place of the original owner and it is an honest telling of the story all the best to him. Finally he gets his car back, and it's nice and shiny too.

If you put yourself in the place of the people who shelled out for this resto you can see how you'd be pretty pissed as well. getting nothing for your money. Technically it's their fault also.

If everyone was cool I'm sure an arrangement could be made. But money and shiny objects can make for some very uncool people.

Thats when you sue the DMV for giving the car the all clear.

There was a " similar" case in Sydney.....hmmm.....10 years ago???

It was in Paddington

A bloke found a dumped Afla in Paddo. Restored it. When he went to register it the bloke that owned it came back from an over seas trip. He had " parked" it for ... like 6months??

Outcome....original owner got it back.... restored....had to pay ...like $2,000 compensation to restorer. But that was nuts compared to what was suppose to have been spent.

It happens :jesus

[Edited on 21-4-2005 by Bizarre]

considering the prices over there you dont want to know
how much they are out of pocket

when my airport double door turns up, and i'm sure it will, (in the uk) i am going to make sure the person who took it pays , not the dude that bought it!

now that really sucks big time!!!!i was very wary in the uk when i was buying a car as they too have no titles????but i feel totally sympathetic to the person in the uk!!!must be a nightmare!!!:pukelooks like the guy that got his splitty in the states back took full advantage of the situation....personally i would have bought him a splitty off the samba in the same condition....but when it comes to us customs i know how totallly alal they can be...and totally unhelpfull in many cases...

my girlfriends uncle had his dirt bike stolen about 12years ago, and 7 years after it being stolen it was returned to him by the police on his birthday, in better condition than when it was stolen - new susp, and a bigger fuel tank etc..

same kinda thing on a smaller scale - not VW.. it is sad to hear though.. so much work nand so much money spent, and it all goes to a selfish mutha, who probably dosent even like VW's 🙁

Hang on..
VW mine.. VW stolen.. VW restored.. VW Found.. VW still mine.. End of story

:jesus

He should have grounds for some sort of action or recourse given that he bought the van in good faith with all appropriate paperwork and legitmate details...

Silver you want to bag the poms! Get a life you dick head and wake up to some style you only dream of!

Simple minded crap like that only sums up how narrow mined you are!

Yea wrong forum , bad attitude should have gone to another forum but dont even start to bag the uk when the vw scene pisses on things here and always will.

Sorry Silver i dont mean to be out order but for f*cks sake give the uk/ozzy crap a rest , it's boring.

As regards to a winge , i'm sorry , you have that confused with the truth.

Tell me what have you done to get things going in your native country lately ???????????

Jack shit!!!

Dan , love you long time!:thumb

[Edited on 21/4/2005 by dannyboy67]

HaHa Poms are us!

Yeh Bad news aY, not a very nice story...

Please lets not cause a ruckus, folks.

silver wrote:The owner should not have to pay a cent for the resto ,good luck to him.
But I would have thought, the resto people who sold something that was not theirs, should give the silly poms all their money back.
It really is that simple
Still, it does give the Poms something else to winge about.

That was a bit harsh Silver, after all it could happen to anyone, any nationality and with so many restos taking place from paddock finds, it should be noted that checks should be made.
If you find a resto in a paddock and the farmer says "yeah take it, will be glad to see the back of it" who knows what will happen in the future
To these people it seems the paperwork was all in place and fine. But the DMV is a state data base and the customs is a Nationwide data base.
I know if it was my bus originally I wouldnt sleep at nights if I reposessed it.
Just food for thought eh!!!!

Pete sorry i'm not but i'm sick of hearing the poms getting bagged all the time.

Tell me where everyone here looks for a trend , a new look etc. The UK or US.

Theres alot of poms on here and i'm sure that they feel the same way i do when they here folk crapping on.

Sorry but i'm sticking up for the poms even though it's AVD.

Any ho , hows ya mum and dad , been a lovely day , aren't the kids growing up! Blimey havent you lost weight!

Mmmmm , i'm off to the BA foum , thanks Pete , life saver:thumb

Dan:thumb:P😀😉:o:duh:puke

never been called a disappointingly small but flavoursome candy snack before 😉

StenGuns wrote:Hang on..
VW mine.. VW stolen.. VW restored.. VW Found.. VW still mine.. End of story

Exactly.

hey,

what about the 30 day rule here in oz...doesnt that take presidence??

That is, if u have a paddock find, get receipt from owner of paddock...then register 'find' it with police, just to be sure. Advert it nationally. then the ppl have 30days to make the claim.

Wait one mre week (for snail mail) If they fail to claim, clean it up, its urs...

If original owner can try claim in court, but it is acepted in court that if u registered with police, and advertised it, & no claim was made on it then...then it became urs...

We used this rule alot when doing business, and ppl would leave their stuff behind and just flee. We woudl always make incredible efforts to find ppl first, and always waited about 6 months b4 doing anything...but there u go.

And yes, sometimes the stuff was worth $30k plus.

We found out about rule thru solicitors.....it is apparently a comon practice whenu have an item u wish to keep, but u are uncertain of its ownership. And as i understand it, the rule is similar in most states....

Hope it helps for those paddock finds...

It makes me wonder whether the "original owner" would have wanted it back if it was "found and recovered" prior to it's resto ?

That sort of story makes me feel sick. Another reason for buying new cars ! I can confidently say that my VW is my VW

You can't blame the original owner for what has happened. It was stolen from him, and its only natural that he should expect it back. Its the registry authority thats to blame here, they are the one's that cleared it. They are the one's that should be made to pay compensation. The poms should be able to sue them for out of pocket expence's.
Rob...

A mate of mine had his GT stolen from his driveway quite a few years back, then by pure luck he happened to stumble across it about a year later in a chassis shop! It had a 12 point roll cage massive slicks etc. It was now vurtually a full on drag car! He got it back and the people were caught....and now he had an unfinished drag car....The engine and interior were gone though.....

ths thread gives me ideas, Hey i know of a 23 window barndoor sitting in a paddock not far from my place, anyone want it?

I suggest you go over there, steal the bus, and take it back to where ever you live, (I think you mentioned the UK). The id1ot previous owner would have no idea where to find it if you do. Forge any paper work etc, and get back WHAT YOU OWN!!!!!!

Thats my opinion. Be an interesting lifes story about the tale of the crusade to bring back the Bus to the UK.

personally i would say that the pom has a deffinate right to FULL compensation for out of pocket expenses...and if its been getting restored in the us over a period of time lets say 12 months since the splitty was bought(hypothetically)then the value of that splitty in the staes has gone up dramatically!!im sure that the dmv cover thier asses bu as mentioned the pom went thruu all the right channels and someone has to be held accountable.as for the owner i dont think its a matter of stolen...found...and now its yours again????wheres his fu... insurance???if your brand new mercedes gets stolen and you end up getting it back 12 months later trashed then you go to your ins. agency and get a new car or if you dont have insurance then you get FA!!!i believe that the owner,although having nothing to do with the theft has a moral obligation to do the right thing??

and for all those people that think that the owner should get to keep the car now and pay absolutly no restitution...well thats just bull...and if you still think that then i hope that your in the poms shoes one day,just so that you know what it feels like to loose a dream!!!!if it were up to certain people that i know they would probably flog the car back and get a whole new title and plate for it as you cant tell one splitty from another more or less.just look on the samba for how many splittys or vws i should say get stollen........its a disgrace!!!but what are you going to do??as mentioned above i wouldent be able to sleep at night either if i took the kombi back fully restored with no compo.but the owner should recieve a splitty of same condition at the time of theft which should be paid be the dmv as im pretty sure that you pay for thier service just like a rev check to see if the car is not stollen and financially clear....which they would be liable for in this instance..

and just for the sake of it kombis in the states have gone up in price because of the weakening us$$$..and EUROPE in my opinin is one of THE BIGGEST VW SCENES in the world as someone forgot to mention...(just thought id point out that the uk and the states arnt vw central)sorry if ive offended anyone as ive had no intention of doing so.hope it all works out for the uk dude:kiss

Man, I was also backing up the pom. Through that point i mentioned, it was meant to show that this guy (pom) should have the right to keep HIS kombi.

From what i understand about the story (Please correct me if im wrong), but this guy bought the kombi, got it partially restored, and something screwed in the system allowed the previous owner to get it back without paying a cent.

I may have got it wrong, but this is what i based my previous reponse on.

i thought that he had the problems when it came to shipping out the kombi(due to us customs having a better system???) but i guess its a pretty harsh what has happend.personally i wouldent buy a car from overseas unless i new the buyer or was there to make sure that everything was ok by being there myself??or buy from an ebayer that has reputable feedback....but i think that everyone has learnt that when buying a car from the states then dont relly on the DMV!!! which this poor block found out the hard way!!its a pitty as i was just looking thru the samba and found this splitty that will be parted out????650us$$$$under $1kau

so people should be wary when buying from overseas but ive sold 2 bugs to the states (also because i had almost 400 pos feedbacks) and both buyers were very happy with the cars that they got....but personally it will not deter me try to import a few rare vws into aus just abit wiser now on the us side of things to check with customs and dont relly on the dmv!!

if you ask me australia is in dier need of having quallity split kombis imported and not the other way around.but on the same note i have no probs with splittys going to the uk or any county for that matter if there going to be restored and cherished the way that they are over there....:oopps did i say that....if we want rhd splittys then go to south africa or thailand and a few other countries around the world!!!or look at volksfolks...hes got a few nice splittys at very reasonable prices!!

[Edited on 23/4/2005 by KDFking]

The SSVC members in the UK, apparently had it totally restored by a reputable restorer in California. It was only when they went to export it, that it showed up stolen on customs records.

Well as I said before, it was stolen, it was found after being bought by an unsuspecting new owner who spent lots of dollars restoring the bus, BUT it is not the problem of the original owner, his bus has been found!
He's happy, even though it's now fully restored he doesn't legally owe anyone a cent.
Not everybody insures their resto in the shed or backyard. I do, but not all do this. I recommend you do it. Shannons have unregistered car insurance that covers you while you restore the car.

The buyer can only get some sort of restitution from the seller or the DMV?

The original owner gets his bus back that's great, the buyer is out of pocket, that's a bitch, but this situation is not a win, win situation.

if the (original) owner is that way inclined then surely the ssvc guys
still have the right to strip off the parts they have spent on it & even
(if it was me) take a paint scrapper & start scraping the paint off seeing
as they paid for the paint & take out the motor & put one in equivelent
to what was originally there.
me personally if it was mine & returned to me in a restored state & the guys who restored it are out of pocket i would sit with them & come to
a gentlemans agreement with them.
i have two plusses on my side 1 im honest 2 im not a yank.
put yourself in their shoes a lot of money lost innocently
put yourself in his shoes(owner) are you that cold & heartless
i dont believe anyone on this forum is like that.

I agree. Whoever sold the bus has just sold stolen goods, and as such should refund the entire amount.

It seems that this thread has blamed the buyer, the original owner, the DMV, US customs, and just about everyone else (maybe its the fault of the guy behind the grassy knoll). Silver is the only one who has raised the point that one party involved has just sold stolen goods. This is the crime.

The original owner is entitled to have his/her bus back, it is his/hers after all. The buyer should not be out of pocket for buying stolen goods. So the seller should be held responsible. The seller in this instance may then be able to pursue a claim against whoever they bought it off, cause somewhere along the line, somebody must have stolen this thing.

i missed that yes i agree the seller is responsible