Stolen M715

So after 4 years of dealing with rust, grease, dirt, rodent nests, and all the other pain that comes with a M715 sitting in central Maine for 20+ years I'm finally ready to make it legal and put it on the road. I take a day off from work to be at my RMV appointment. I get inside and the woman regretfully informs me that I’ll need to pay penalty on the sales tax That I should’ve paid 4 years ago…I had no idea, but thankfully she was super nice and helpful. Since the PO did not fill out the info on the back of the Title she said if I just write in all the info now and date it for last week I’ll be good to go…phew. So now I go back inside and get my ticket an get to the window. After several minutes of one woman trying to work on it she gets some help from he co-worker. The other woman takes over and after 10 minutes says “I’ve got some bad news, your truck was reported stolen from Camden NJ in 1971”. WHAT???? Are you joking???? She hands me the printout from the database. She goes on to tell me that the truck has been titled in several states since and has no real explanation of whats up. She just says “you got to clear this up with CPD. Yeah I’m sure they hop right on that pressing cold case. The woman did take my info and said she’d call me back if she could get any info. I’m thinking yeah right, sure and I go home pretty unhappy. Can you believe it though she called me back 3 hours later asking me if I could get back there in 45 minutes because she had it straightened out and her shift was ending. Needless to say its about a 25 minute ride so I hopped on my bike and made it in about 12. Truck is on the road and legal.

That's incredible!

What did the nice lady you talked to attribute the sudden solution to?

I never even asked her how she fixed it and on top of that she was telling me the book value of the truck was $5100 and was going to have to pay Massachusetts 6.25% sales tax on that even though Bill of Sale was $400. She said "but my glasses are fogged up with this mask on so I'm just typing in that I cannot find it on the list." Paid 24 bucks vs 318. Overall it was a good day at the RMV. I bet I'll never say that again.

Driving it like it was stolen

Congrats on getting it on the road. The stolen vehicle out of Camden in 1971 was probably a trailer or moped that just happened to have the same 5 digit vin # as yours. Once they figured out that it was not the same type of vehicle they got yours rolling. Other members have had problems before when titling a truck and the states system finds another vehicle in the system with the same vin#. This was one of the main reasons they when to the 17 digit vin's. Plus in 1971 your truck would have still been in Military service. They didn't start to phase them out until 1976 when the Dodge 880 trucks were coming in.

I was thinking the same thing.
There's no experience like having someone at motor vehicle be super helpful- glad you got it back on the road!

That makes a lot of sense because one of the first things she said "this is a trailer?"

Congrats on getting it done, good job.

Ha! Good conclusion. I too had a problem with three brands getting added to previously clean title. And getting told it was a 20K truck when it came to paying tax on it. Thankfully a very helpful gal fixed all of it for me. Her co-worker right next to her said "you can't get a brand removed" And this gal proved her wrong. She calls me Al the jeep guy every time I go in. :D
Good ending !!!

Wow...glad that cleaned up without a royal migraine...thanks for sharing the story though as its not the first time and not the last either...

Now that its legal, get out there and make some great memories...ENJOY!!!

That DMV lady was angling for a date! That's the only way things there go that smoothly...

I would've gladly walked out of the RMV arm in arm with that woman and treated her to whatever she wanted.

I bought the truck from my hunting buddy's dad. I figured I make him a tee shirt. I can't wait to give it to the old buck!

I think that's an awesome graphic!

Now thats cool!! We need to nominate you to do the next Zone Tee shirts.:D:D:D

That is a good graphic...NICE!!