[Racefan]

My question is this....SOMEONE out there performed an illegal act and got away with it. It seems that everyone is talking about it is the buyers fault or the sellers fault-- it really is the perpetrators fault. What is/can be done to track this back to the person who initiated the fraud?

Why not follow the lineage back to see who/where this thing was "restored" by?

I agree that the buyer has a responsibility to perform "due diligence". However, in this case someone (at some point) broke the law and made it a point to illegally mislead future buyers. Due diligence is checking to see if the VIN is a genuine COPO VIN, and it WAS (at one time atleast). It is a bit unreasonable in my opinion to expect the buyer to obtain information about illegal activites which were undertaken. Especially when dis-assembly was required.

It appears that Charley and Drew have a pretty good line of communication. Why doesn't Drew "float" these VINs by some of the accepted "experts" that I am sure he knows personally? Many from this site could have alerted R&S about this car just as easily as the buyer could have found the info. I would think this would make the auction house's lives much, much simpler?