My car has been violated!

[njsteve]

IMMEDIATELY REPORT IT TO THE POLICE. I don't know about Canada but it's a felony in the States and that is probably where it's going. As part of their investigatory process they will be asking for the value of the car. Make sure you know what the value of a fully restored example is, since that is what you were going to do with it in the future.

As part of their procedure the VIN and the tags will be entered into the national crime database and when the tags show up on ebay, they have criminal charges they can get the guy on. Or when the a-hole restores it and goes to register it, the car gets siezed, the guy gets arrested and you get the car.