Abandoned Volvo

Re: the abandoned Volvo 760 turbo wagon I posted about earlier:
After I sent a registered letter to the owners offering to buy the car
(which has been sitting unlocked in a motel parking lot for over a year)
I got the card back in the mail indicating the letter was delivered to
the intended recipient. They never made any attempt to contact me.
I talked to one of the owners of the motel and he said he'd talked to
the other two co
-owners and they said they're not going to do anything about the
car--i.e. apparently just let it sit there indefinitely (until it
deteriorates beyond feasible repair).
Pisses me off.
Since it's on their property, I can't really mess with it, but
obviously neither they nor the car's owner care about it.
Still seems like I should be able to get it away from those dummies
somehow--while it's still worth something.

 

James, I get the uneasy feeling it isn't worth anything and hasn't been for
years. The people who abandoned it and are not responding were responsible
for the maintenance - if such a car were offered for sale I would never
consider buying it at any price. It has likely not had regular oil changes,
may have plain water run in the cooling system, may have been overheated.
Any of those things can cost more to repair than the car is worth. In any
event, there is a reason they abandoned it - maybe more than one reason. As
the owner of a 765T I can attest the parts and labor to resurrect one of
those beasts could be prohibitive.

Mike

 

So move it off their property... "abandon" it in in front of your house, or
in the parking lot of another business.

 

Still seems like I should be able to get it away from those dummies

Do I treally have to state the obvious? It's *their car*, and what
they do or don't do with it is no one else's business. Has this
country really fallen to the level of 'How can I steal this car
legally?'...?
--







http://freevision.org/michael/index.html

 

Yes, I wouldn't pay much for the car just because of all the unknowns.
If I couldn't get it for cheap it would be foolish to even mess with it.
You can get a lot of money in them "real quick."
But the body and interior are remarkably good--I just wanted to
resurrect it more as a labour of love rather than an economically
feasible and practical matter. I know parts for those aren't cheap.
The paper work in the glove compartment indicates the car's owner
purchased it less than a year before she abandoned it. Possibly never
even got it paid off if she borrowed from the bank. I'm going to see if
there's a loan against it if I can.
I just like tinkering with cars, have a degree in automotive tech. and
always thought those Volvo wagons were cool.
It actually looks like it's fairly easy to work on in terms of there
being plenty of room under the hood (compared to a lot of cars).
It may be possible that one of the owners/managers at the motel has
designs on it themself, although I doubt it.

 

If the motel owners do not own the car, then what they have sitting in
the parking lot could be considered an attractive nusiance. They have
previous knowledge that it is abandoned, and becasue they have not
taken steps to remove it, if someone gets hurt becasue of it being
abandoned there (like a child playing on or in it) then they can be
liable.

__ __
Randy & \ \/ /alerie's
\__/olvo
'93 960 Estate

 

house, or in the parking lot of another business.

They've been given ample opportunity to claim it. I'm not saying sneak it
off and hide it in a garage somewhere, just move it somewhere that you can
claim it if the current owner does not.

 

A good body and interior is worth a grand to me, haven't been able to find
one though, usually that's the first thing to go.

 

The body is good on ours (spent most of its life in Phoenix) but the
interior has shattered into hundreds of plastic chunks and there are too
many cracks in the dash to count. It now is a hauler - stuff from the
building supply store, stuff to the dump, dogs wherever, me to work....

Mike

 

It's kind of remarkable that the motel owers have never even bothered
to lock the thing (speaking of children playing on or in it.
To cut right to the chase, one would have to wonder what the motel
owners would do if the car just disappeared. Call the cops? Why?--it's
not their car. Maybe the owners came back and got it.
Hypothetically speaking, (and I don't think I'm going to do this),
what if I simply went and took the thing. Took it to my house, about 60
miles away. And then I just called the authorities and told them the
story, how it's been sitting in a motel parking lot for over a year,
very obviously abandoned, the owners of the motel refuse to touch it or
address it in any way, and how I sent the car's owner a registered
letter offering to buy it which they recieved and signed for and never
replied to, and how I've checked with the DMV in the county where it's
registered and determined there is no lein against it.
And how I'd now like to have them declare it abandoned and apply for a
title in my name.
Seriously...what would happen to me?

 

Seriously? If you did that, it would be the same as calling the police
and saying, "Hey. I just took a car that doesn't belong to me and it
is sitting right here on my property. What are you going to do about
it?"

If you wanted to be underhanded, you could send aa fried to the motel,
let him trip on it, and tell the motel owners that he is going to
sue.... but... he might reconsider if they let him tow the car off...

But really? Go to a local wrecking yard, and ask them what they do to
trace down the owner of a car when it is in eh condition of ownership
as this one. Maybe they know how to deal with it, and the car can be
yours.

And vry seriously, becasue you have discussed this in an open forum,
and becasue Googlew groups has an archive, the authorities could get
you not only for theft and psoissession of stolen gods, but also of
conspiracy which is a felony. I have yet to see a car worth the risk
of going to jail and being Bubba's bitch...

my $.02


__ __
Randy & \ \/ /alerie's
\__/olvo
'93 960 Estate

 

Yo, Jimbo.

Talkin' like dis, it coulda lead to eh...dificulties, ya know what I'm
talkin bout, paison?
Ya evah watch da Soparanos? Dijya see when Tony sez to Christopher how hez
gonna be talkin to da crews trou him soas nuting could be traced back to
him?

Ya tink da feds aint got no computers, Jimbo?

Sheesh!

Seriously, if seeking the professional counsel of a reputable, licensed
attorney in your jurisdiction is unwarranted in your opinion (perhaps due to
cost considerations) a trip to a local law school where the librarian, or
perhaps a student will help you find the applicable law, both common law
I.E. what the decisions have been in your jurisdiction, and what the letter
of the law is would seem to be the prudent first step toward a reasonable
solution to this matter.

On da odder hand however...

 

You despicable fellow! I will have you know Bubba is good people, and hey
the man's got his needs, you know!

 

Just tow it and file for a lost title thru a small tote the note car lot.
Probably cost ya a hundred bucks and its yours. If you just want it for
parts just take it, strip it and dump it.

 

Ladies and gentlemen, we have our co-conspirator!


__ __
Randy & \ \/ /alerie's
\__/olvo
'93 960 Estate

 

Maybe bad things. I work with an engineer who bought a rusted trailer for
$25, and searched the title back to Mississippi, where the trail went cold.
No title; he couldn't register it. But one day he decided to take a load of
trash to the dump in it and he passed a motorcycle cop. The next thing he
knew he was pleading guilty to the felony of pulling an unregistered trailer
within the Glendale AZ city limits.

Mike

 

OK, howz about I just take it to my house and tell the cops someone
abandoned it there? ;-) Which, technically, "someone" did: me!
Actually, I am going to the junkyard tomorrow just to see if they've
ever encountered a similar situation.
After all this time, I would imagine the car's owners have probably
pretty much just forgotten about it.
A friend in the Twin Cities told me today people do that a lot up
there (just abandon a car when it quits). I think that's the case here,
and in this (unusual) case they got away with it because the law was
never called to address it--it was just allowed to sit there
indefinitely.
Maybe they figured that it wasn't a big deal to just leave it, since a
car like that someone eventually would likely take the initiative to try
to gain ownership.
And it would be extremely unlikely for them to expect it to actually
still be there after all this time.. I never said where it was when I
sent them the letter.
They might think it's in a salvage and towing company with a bunch of
towing and storage fees accrued.
They have washed their hands of it a long time ago.

 

If you HAVE to obtain it easily and legally just call the city and report it
as abandoned and tell em you own the property and would like it removed.
Then wait for the city auction and you can legally buy for pennies nad
receive and salvage title.

 

A _FELONY_ for pulling an unregistered trailer!? Now I have TWO
reasons for not wanting to ever live in AZ!


__ __
Randy & \ \/ /alerie's
\__/olvo
'93 960 Estate

 

I'm trying to guess the other. Unreal heat in most of the state? Prominent
Mafia presence? Proliferation of hostile life forms (rattlesnakes,
scorpions, gila monsters, black widow spiders, cholla cactus...)? It cracks
me up how we don't have the the official pests of other places: we don't
have brown recluse spiders (Loxosceles Reclusa), only the slightly more
toxic Arizona Brown Spider (Loxosceles Arizonica). We don't have Lyme
disease, only Arizona Relapsing Fever... although both are borreliosis.
Y'all c'mon down!

Mike