[njsteve]

Though the PA State Police may have run a current stolen check on the VINs that in no way means there wasn't a theft issue well into the past. Normally the "stolen" status stays on the law enforcement records for about 10 years, then gets purged. The period may be less depending on the statute of limitations for the theft. Otherwise every car that was ever stolen in the past 100 years would still be on the records and the data storage issues would be beyond comprehension. Imagine going to your local police station and asking them for the theft report on a car stolen in 1962. Think they still have it?

This is one of the things that NICB (National Insurance Crime Bureau) does: they can do off-line searches for old theft reports through their insurance claims records - records that are archived, not purged. So the end result is that there still may be issues well into the future for a prospective buyer from a ill-reputed seller.