Have you ever been approached with stolen car parts?

[patrick66]

I know buying stolen parts is illegal so why can scrap yards buy a truck full of stolen cat converters and no one says a word? They should be busted as soon as they buy them.

Laws in Oklahoma now provide that the seller of cats MUST show, for each cat, the VIN it came from and the owner's name of each cat he intends to scrap. It seems to have cut deeply into the whole stolen-cat problem here. I saw a fella pull up at the local scrap guy several months ago (who didn't care where things came from!) with a pickup full of various cat converters - probably a hundred or more - back when they were bringing up to $1,000 each. Remember, it's the rare-earth minerals palladium, rhodium, and platinum they contain, is what brings the money, not the converter itself. The converter is just the container.

 

[72 BLUE 400]

in the late 80s a yard in sw michigan had a bunch of cars buried in the ground they were stolen out of chicago bought to the yard cut at the firewall and buried the shell, they were busted in the early 90s i remember seeing a 69 superbee cut at the firewall nothing else wrong with the car.

 

[Slap Stick]

Never been approached with car parts, but I was visiting a friend who worked for a guy rehabbing vacant houses. We were in the garage and a guy approached us and asked if we would be interested in a new snow blower for $50. At that price we knew it had to be hot, but we looked anyway. In the back of his truck, complete with Lowe's tags was....a front tine tiller.

 

[Cranky]

What I mean is have you ever been given the opportunity to buy stolen parts on the black market? We all hear of the Chop Shops. Is that just a movie thing? I've heard plenty of high HP Mopars get stolen. There must be a fairly large market for the drivelines. If someone was offering you a Hellcat or LS7 engine and trans for cheap what would you do?

Just so you know, no one is offering me anything nor have they ever done so.

No.....and have never bought stolen goods that I know of. Now I did do some shady stuff in the mid 70's like pick up abandoned cars. Heck, one car had a note on the windshield saying 'I will this car today' lol

 

[69a100]

And yet not one word about that nice friendly looking guy that could have sold you HOT parts at a Mopar event in the swap area!! They're everywhere! I guess that doesn't apply to this topic as you approached them for parts?

 

[5.7 hemi]

I was gonna ask about Mopar swap meets. You beat me by a few seconds!

 

[YY1]

About the most "amusing" anecdote I have regarding stolen parts is-

I used to race BMX with a guy that had a cousin that also raced and lived much closer to our favorite track, which was on the other side of town somewhat close to the "bad side".
The first time we spent the night with the cousin so we could get an early start at the track, I noticed all the gm cars in the neighborhood had the wrong rally wheels.

I can imagine the scenario went something like this:

No, I ain't seen your pontiac rally's.....but I got a nice set of olds rally's I can let ya have cheap.

 

[69a100]

I was gonna ask about Mopar swap meets. You beat me by a few seconds!

I guess simple minds think alike?

 

[Charles Cook]

Karma will get you every time.

 

[f569]

Back in '83-'84 there was a Satellite (IIRC) left on the end of the block I worked on at the time. After several days of the car disappearing piece by piece I decided that I'd try to liberate it of its front buckets for my '73 Charger. Well, after getting just 1 or two bolts out of the passenger side, NYPD "stealths" up on me from the wrong end of a one way street and wants to arrest me for car theft. When it became obvious I didn't steal the car he asked me how I'd feel if someone stripped a car of mine that had been stolen. I replied "that's why I didn't try to get them a week ago when it was still a car and not a carcass! When I asked if this was his FIRST night on patrol his suggestion was to leave the seats and get lost ..... I heeded it.

 

[Kern Dog]

In 1994, my Grandmother called to ask me to tow away a car that was left behind by my late Uncle, her son that had just passed away.
This was a 1980 Trans Am.
Uncle Bill was a drunk. Every memory of him involves beer and stupid decisions.
He bought this car from a shady used car lot but got no title for it. The owner claimed he would mail it to him after "processing".
Bill died, I towed the car to my place and proceeded to part it out to make some money to give to Grandma. I placed a classified ad in the paper. I sold the engine and transmission, the whole front end and the seats.
THEN one day a guy showed up, HE had the title in his name and also showed me his drivers license.
Apparently, the guy "pawned" the car to this used car dealer but somehow, kept the title. I don't have a clue as to how that works....
The car dealer either jumped the gun or just needed some cash so Uncle Bill got caught in the middle.
I ended up towing the car to the home of this guy, the rightful owner. No contact after that.

 

[1 Wild R/T]

In 1994, my Grandmother called to ask me to tow away a car that was left behind by my late Uncle, her son that had just passed away.
This was a 1980 Trans Am.
Uncle Bill was a drunk. Every memory of him involves beer and stupid decisions.
He bought this car from a shady used car lot but got no title for it. The owner claimed he would mail it to him after "processing".
Bill died, I towed the car to my place and proceeded to part it out to make some money to give to Grandma. I placed a classified ad in the paper. I sold the engine and transmission, the whole front end and the seats.
THEN one day a guy showed up, HE had the title in his name and also showed me his drivers license.
Apparently, the guy "pawned" the car to this used car dealer but somehow, kept the title. I don't have a clue as to how that works....
The car dealer either jumped the gun or just needed some cash so Uncle Bill got caught in the middle.
I ended up towing the car to the home of this guy, the rightful owner. No contact after that.

Could have been much worse.... Shady car lots & sketchy drunks are a bad mix... Glad it didn't turn out worse for ya...

 

[Kern Dog]

Uncle Bill was a silly drunk. He would get sauced and say stupid things much like I say....but I can't blame my actions on alcohol.

 

[cosgig]

This one has been “cooling down” for the past 35 years. Repo’d for a bill unpaid, but didn’t come with the title. Might just rot out before anything is ever done to it. 340/4 speed, 3 fender tags.