Back in May, I bought a Mustang. Also in May, the person I bought it from moved to Utah. The purchase had been made in person, I drove to the address I found online, bought it with a handshake, paid the following day, and brought it home. I had no contact information for the guy, no phone number, but I had the title, so all was good!
Except it wasn’t. The car had been his mother’s, and while she signed the title over, she signed it in an incorrect spot (dealer assignment), thus making it an invalid transfer of ownership, according to my first trip to the DMV. So basically, mother gives son car in South Dakota, he moves to CO, never transfers the title, and here I am with no contact info, a title signed in the wrong spot, and a DMV that’s telling me I either have to find the original owner, or go through the bonded title process.
Through the power of google-fu, I found the guy’s phone number (thank you, unique last name!), and he actually called me back and apologized for the mix up. I confirmed the address on the title was still valid, and sent it back to his mom in South Dakota with a self addressed priority return envelope. It took a wee bit longer that I expected it to arrive back to me, but it did. As of this morning, the title is now officially in my name, I have a temp tag (they mail the collector plates), insurance, so I’m road legal!
I know some people might wonder why I went through the trouble of finding the original owner. I had people saying “just forge it”, but I didn’t have it in me not to try and do it right.
I don’t have any recent pictures, so I’ll recycle an old one. It’s still sitting in this same spot.
That’s the good news of the day, the slightly more stressful news is that my work is eliminating positions next month, and my team will be disproportionally affected. Hey, at least I have a clear title on the Mustang to sell it if I need to. Ha.