Stolen Vehicles and Lien Titles Being Exported to Dodge Authorities

Vehicle titles are crucial in the automobile industry, especially for exported vehicles from auctions. These vehicles are highly prone to title investigations. In this article, we will focus on stolen vehicles from the US that were discovered in Europe. When a vehicle is stolen in the United States, titling becomes very difficult because the VIN or serial number is flagged as stolen. The federal record system, known as the National Motor Vehicle Title Information System (NMVTIS), accessible to all 50 states in the US, can identify stolen vehicles, making it impossible to title them. Even if a car is not stolen but has a lien, you still cannot sell it. However, shipping the car to another country can be a viable solution as the owner can stop paying the lien, and the car might be able to be titled.

To prevent stolen vehicles from being exported, the United States employs a unique approach. Unlike other commodities, vehicles undergo an inspection by the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency of Homeland Security on their way out of the country. Typically, we associate customs with inspecting things on their way in, but vehicles are also checked on their way out. The CBP aims to ensure that no vehicles leave the country that shouldn’t be leaving, such as those that are stolen, have liens, or have other problems. To get around this, people may hide vehicles inside containers and label them as auto parts or something else. However, this tactic is not foolproof, as a vehicle doesn’t need to be packed in a container, and it can be shipped on a transporter. If the VIN is hidden inside a container, the CBP won’t inspect it, but they will find it when it reaches the other end. The Spanish version of customs discovered the stolen vehicles when they came off the boat, and they alerted their American counterparts. This is why thieves often try to export stolen vehicles quickly to get them out of the country before they’re caught.

In many cases, stolen vehicles have trackers on them and can be located at the port. Port facilities have high-tech methods for discovering vehicles inside a container, such as x-raying the container or using dogs to detect vehicle-type scents. These methods catch many batches of vehicles leaving the country, with 30-40 vehicles being discovered at a time. However, many of these vehicles aren’t truly stolen; they have liens on them. Bringing a vehicle to another country and trying to title it with a VIN that’s not in the US can be tricky. Many other countries will check US VINs to see if they’re stolen and won’t title a stolen car, but they may not check for liens. If a person has a high-end vehicle with a lien, they can borrow money to buy the car, ship it, and sell it for cash, even at a discount. This puts money in their pocket. Customs is crucial to preventing title fraud or title washing because the VIN number sticks with the vehicle in this country. If the car is taken overseas or across the border, the owner can try to get ownership of it and extract the value from a stolen vehicle, a vehicle with a lien, or a bad title. However, if you’re dealing with a vehicle in another country that doesn’t subscribe to the United States title research or title background, then the title defect may not be a problem.

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