xj-grin
NAXJA Member #1096
- Location
- Colorado Springs, Colorado
Doesn't really matter if it's 20 oz or 20 lbs, it's too damn heavy for a private "sale".
The only people that care about the "law" are those that make their living off of it.![]()
The stolen trailer saga has come to an extremely aggravating conclusion....
So a DPD auto theft investigator finally contacted the Littleton PD officer who I'd been working with. Both the LPD and DPD guys have been in contact with the guy registered to the plate that was screwed to the trailer. That plate info is what the trailer owner used to report it stolen. He's even described the trailer down to the house paint spilled on it, where it's spilled on it and that the lights are inoperable.
The LPD officer called me today and said DPD wants the trailer recovered by LPD and impounded. Ok, that's pretty much the norm. I had no problem with that and met the LPD officer this afternoon and released the trailer to him.
Now, since all that the Texas plate registration shows is that it's a non-VIN stamped homemade black utility trailer...... get this...... DPD can justify taking a stolen trailer report, and justify having it towed and impounded, however.........
DPD will not be returning it to the guy the plate registers to. "Because he can't prove he actually owns the trailer. No VIN, no title, no proof." I guess the black and white of it is the fact that the owner never "properly" titled and registered the trailer in Colorado as the law requires once he'd established residency.
So, essentially DPD is now stealing the value of the trailer from the owner...... AS WELL AS my $300 investment in this whole ordeal.
Lesson to be learned here? Honesty isn't always the best policy apparently. The ONLY reason this trailer was "recovered" was because I did the right thing and had the plate cleared and the trailer inspected before I went to get my own title for it. Had I not? I'd have a really nice trailer..... in my name with a shiny new VIN plate attached to it.
W..........T..........F?
I have a message in to the DPD investigator to try and get a better understanding of this. And to perhaps find a way to at least get the trailer back to the owner. At this point, I have come to terms with the money I lost on the deal...... but it truely sucks for the guy that lost the trailer. I also need to hear it from DPD as to why they're not going to attempt to find the crook - after all, I gave them his cell phone number, the Craigslist account info, copies of the ad and bill of sale he signed, and other details about the crook........
Im sure it depends on the specific officer. When my Jeep was stolen, the responding officer was very nice and willing to write down the specifics about the Jeep that would make it stand out, and the officer who found the Jeep called four times to see if I was able to grab the Jeep before it was towed (granted it was ~3am and I was asleep).I have come to the conclusion that DPD trains their officers to be lazy and collect as much money for the county as they can whether its ethical/non-ethical or legal/illegal... They have the law on their side.