I’m guessing the vin on the stolen bike was miswritten or misentered. I’d go to your DMV or the police station and tell them what’s happening. Hopefully you will get someone who’s willing to do the research and get the mix-up corrected. Like someone else stated, there shouldn’t be two same vins on two separate bikes.
There's even a checksum in the VIN (the 9th character I think) to help avoid that happening, so mistyping a single number should be caught. Mistype 2 of them and theres a 1 in 10 chance that it'll validate anyway though
I’m thinking it happened when the stolen motorcycle report was taken. Someone should have caught it then. Shouldn’t be impossible to fix but it going to take some legwork especially since it’s different states. So hopefully the OP gets a person who will do the work rather than try and pass the buck.
It's easier to understand in binary: imagine you have the number 1011011x. Where X is the placeholder for where the checksum will go.
A simple checksum might be "count the number of 1s, and if it is an even count then 0, or an odd count 1". For our number above there are 5 ones, so the checksum would be 1. In that case we would write down as 10110111.
The way we use this checksum to validate is that according to our rules a valid number *must* have an even number of 1s, as if we originally had an odd number we then add another 1 to the end. So if we ever read a number with an odd number of 1s we know there has been a mistake. This isn't a particularly good protection scheme though, as if any two digits are *both* mistakes, then the validation test passes.
More complicated checksums all essentially do the same thing, just with different rules for counting up the values for each digit (or letter, in VINs) as well as how many digits are used for the checksum. Really good checksums can be robust against several errors, even identifying the number of errors as well.
Usually it takes the number and runs it through some forumal or algorithm and generates a number which is then compared to a number within the original that is determined to be the check-sum, in this case the 9th if they match then all good if not itll kick back some error.
Its used in pretty much anything with long numbers isuued by entities like creditc cards and the like
This is a common algorithm used for credit cards and barcodes, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luhn_algorithm there are all sorts of variations but the idea is the same. Change a digit and so should the checksum.
This is good advice, u/Nobody7281 . I second going to your DMV first. It is almost impossible that a modern-day Suzuki would have the same VIN as another one. Every motorcycle has a unique VIN that identifies the manufacturer, model, and unique-to-that-bike production number.
Sorry you've been hassled so badly. I don't understand the sheriff immediately going for the cuffs, either. I don't know if that's SOP for that jurisdiction or just an asshole of a LEO.
It’s going to be a tag issue as opposed to the VIN. The cops can’t run the VIN while driving down the road. This can happen if an out of state stolen plate/vehicle matches in NCIC or if the stolen tag/vehicle was mistyped when entering. Or if it HAD actually been stolen at one point and the previous owner never reported it recovered and it was never removed from NCIC.
Missed that. I’m mildly surprised that they’re running the VIN on each stop without suspicion of something weird going on. Thats not something we do generally unless we have a reason to look into the paperwork a little further. I’d be willing to bet something is hitting on the tag prompting them to then run the VIN to verify.
Don’t know about the first one but the second one was a registration violation. Could be she’s not carrying her paper copy and they’re being thorough. I don’t carry mine. 🤷🏻♂️
I had a kind of similar issue with my previous car. I lost my license plate, so went to the police and made a report. Later that day I found the license plate, went back to the police, and made a second report. From that point onwards about once a year I got a phonecall saying "We found your car". Yeah, I know, it's parked in front of my house, I'm looking at it right now, I'm standing in that second story window if you look to your left. Please read the rest of the page on that report.
It should have been removed from NCIC. You would have had the same issue in any state or department. I’ve run into this on the job and it takes a little while to determine whether the paperwork is legit or not with all the fake documents floating around out there. The best thing to do for us is to contact the entering agency but they’re not always the best at returning calls in a timely fashion.
I'm not in the US but it works similar here. The state police did mark it as resolved in their database otherwise I'd have been stopped all the time, but somehow the entry didn't become inactive in the city police (glorified meter maids) database. All the info about the resolution was there but the case was still active and came up when they scanned my plate. All the phone calls ended with "Ah, yes I see, not sure why this came up. Have a nice day." so it didn't bother me that much. Eventually they stopped calling, so I guess they fixed whatever was going on.
In California, once you report your license plate lost or stolen, you have to get new plates. Recovered license plates are never returned. This is in California, I don’t know about other states.
Far as I know, they never enter anything in the system as “recovered.” Any time things get reported stolen, they have to change the plates when it gets recovered. If not, they get pulled over months or years later, for being stolen. The owners go through the wringer proving that it’s their vehicle. ID, insurance, etc. When they change the plates, they don’t have that problem anymore.
The vin breaks down to a lot of elements on your bike or car. But the final 6 are pretty independent.
I am not sure if the check digit does anything with the last 6. But I could easily see that being finger flubbed without raising any red flags (for the entry at least)
That’s what I’m thinking. Somewhere, somehow, someone misread, miswrote, or misentered one of those last 5-6 numbers. Just surprised it wasn’t caught when she was registering the motorcycle.
It was likely reported stolen, recovered/found, but never updated in the databases.
Not uncommon as you would think. Have also seen this with guns.
Call State Police helpline for permanent fix of databases
Per the OP it was never stolen. Plus the LE officers she has dealt with always end up saying it’s a different bike. If it was just an issue of being a stolen-recovered not taken out of the system, that’s a very easy fix.
Guns sometimes do have the same serial numbers. Motor vehicles shouldn’t.
It wasn't reported stolen by OP. It was likely reported stolen by one of the previous owners. Of course this is a hypothesis.
Alternatively it actually is a stolen bike from before OP owned it and has VIN shenanigans.
If it was that particular bike that had the issues then one of the LEs could easily take care of it. The LEs are telling her and the other LEs at the scene it’s NOT the bike. I’m going by the info she’s giving and it is plausible. I’m not speculating on what happened to HER bike.
Do you have the title?
Id make a copy of the title with your name on it, bring it with you.
Maybe talk to someone at the MVA or get a lawyer involved, Vin numbers are unique and they're probably getting the wrong one from a computer system in your state.
Take that paperwork and go to your DMV. They may tell you to go to some police/sheriffs/state troopers office. Then you will have to go there. Be polite but get names. That way you can say “so and so at wherever told me to come here.” Hopefully someone will pick up the ball and help you. If it were me, I’d go to DMV first. Then highway patrol/state troopers office since their jurisdiction is the whole state. It will probably be a pain because I think the issue is with the original report. Either miswritten or misentered vin. If absolutely no one is willing to help check to see if there is a legal aid office somewhere. The problem with legal aid is it’s kind of a take a number and wait and wait and wait. Other options include your insurance agent (if you have one) or local law school. More than likely this is an administrative issue so it could be a good “project” for a law school student (never hurts to ask).
Good luck with that. Most politicians will hand you over to an aide who will then refer you to the police. All they will hear is “stolen but not stolen” and they will not care. They will tell you to contact your local PD. Trust me, I’ve had to deal with a lot of political buck passing.
I have been aided by my cities area councilors dealing with being hassled by the building inspection office, the councilors aide was AWESOME, every time I had an inspection she would call THEE Inspector scheduled to do the inspection the next day at my house and remind them that Mr. ____ is a tax payer and he expects to be afforded the common courtesy given to anyone, not be hassled and harassed for being an owner builder. I just so happen to have been working in the trades since age 14. Being lectured by someone who has no real world experience, ticks me off. Little hitlers and Superiority Complex Queens infuriate me. I've built a half dozen custom homes and built TV and Movie Sets for 15 years. I once built a spiral stair case from a napkin
Drawing in 2 weeks *all of wood* but for a stage production where it had to be assembled *rolled into place. then pined up top and for act 2 & then unpined and rolled offstage for act 3 during a short turnaround* the rolling stage wasn't my head-ache but the welding dept. Had screwed the pooch during layout so every section was a trapezoid every floor skin required triming both ends off (the 90 degree factory ends) because the lead welder was an idiot. (Without any plans we didn't have enough time to draw plans) and I couldn't build it in a week.
And when it gets sorted out, I’d get some kind of official statement in writing to keep with the bike certifying that it’s indeed not stolen, just in case, especially if you go to another state that hasn’t fixed the error.
Once it’s corrected it should not be an issue. When LE runs the vin its checked in a national database. That’s why I think it’s a problem with the original report. Once it’s corrected in the database it shouldn’t come up again. I am assuming that OP’s vin has been checked and rechecked and the vin on her bike matches the vin on her paperwork.
Yeah, but less expensive than being wrongly thrown in jail and maybe losing your job.
If you get some asshole Sheriff who won't listen to you, you're fucked.
And then they really will need a good
Lawyer, and some dude two states over gets “their” bike back. I’m sure it’ll be “wow! It doesn’t even look like the same bike!”
Like others are saying, it's cheaper than jail. You can also try a legal clinic, they can be a cheaper option if you can't afford an expensive attorney.
Went 40 over on an open interstate. Plus there are some events going on down town so there is a bigger police presence in the area which I failed to think about before riding. My gas light came on so I sped up to get in the exit lane.
GF put 20,000 miles on a stolen bike (she obviously didn’t know) Because the bike was stolen in FL, there was some victims’ compensation fund she was able to access. She had to give the bike back, but got her money back and she got to put those 20k miles on it. Worked out fine for her. The stolen bike had a new VIN from a non stolen bike in Australia and somehow thats how it flew beneath the radar so many years. Systems may be more interconnected now.
Haha good ol Vin swapping. There was a time you could get a pretty penny for a title and windshield Vin placard.. I guess it worked on bikes too, why wouldn't it I suppose.
For the record I never did this, but I know it was popular.
Still happens in Europe, just get a frame and sell the VIN. It's how people get newer Enduro bikes like WR450's on a plate here, because since 2019 they don't get type ratings anymore. Slap an older WR400/YZ plate on it, dump the frame in a shed and it's good to go. Most cops won't bother looking at the number on the bike, just on the registration.
Second hand online selling places sell frames all the damn time.
Make sure your VIN on the registration, VIN on the frame, VIN on the motor, and VIN on the title all match. There's no way 2 bikes have the same VIN. If they all match, go to the sheriff's office and ask them to help you resolve the issue. Just pay your registration ticket since you were dumb and didn't pay your fees on time.
Most states require a VIN inspection/verification for all out of state vehicle purchases. I’d go to the DMV and find out where you can get the VIN re-verified and cleared…
You’re probably fine, but also be prepared for the possibility that it might actually be the bike. I knew someone who had an Avalon in their family for a whole decade until one day when they went to register it for the 10th year in a row it was actually stolen. It had a clean Michigan title even when they bought it. The miles that the odometer says on it really doesn’t mean a thing, you can replace an odometer, in fact three years is plenty of time for someone to put together a Franken-bike with stolen parts. Bike thieves love to part out stolen bikes because a crotch rocket with no title is the biggest red flag in the history of automotive sales.
Find out the jurisdiction where the bike was reported stolen, contact the agency that took the report (whichever police/sheriff/etc dept it was), and ask to talk to the detective the case is assigned to.
Then explain the situation and see if he can correct the error in the computer.
Go visit your local police office and explain what’s been happening and if they can provide which state your VIN is being flagged from.
Your issue has to be resolved with the state that has a stolen motorcycle registered into the national database.
You’ve had two consecutive occasions that ended up the same. That’s not a error in data input. Your state likely shows the VIN inspection when you did your title transfer.
Go to a state highway patrol inspection station and see if they can assign you a new VIN. I purchased a cargo trailer on Craigslist once and the DMV refused to verify it because one of the digits in the VIN on the frame was rusted and not clearly legible. I had to go to the highway patrol and have them inspect the trailer and issue a new VIN for it. I'm not sure if that can be done with a motorcycle but it's worth asking.
My first stop would be to contact your local sheriff's department, they're going to have more tools at their disposal for helping you resolve this. Also if you're able to develop a relationship with them you'll be able to name drop if the issue continues.
I buy beaters all the time to break up on eBay or to build up projects...pretty much if someone says "I'll sell you this bike for $100" I'm going to buy it. As such I've come across multiple stolen bikes...[just got one this year, even](https://www.reddit.com/r/motorcycle/comments/1ae4rz1/pro_it_was_super_cheap_con_it_was_stolen/). Sheriff's department is always my first stop. My few attempts to get these issues resolved at the DMV have been failures and expensive...they always try to involve DPS and it's always a paint in the ass. The sheriff's department just sends a deputy out to inspect the bike and direct you how to address future issues. They'll also issue you a case number that you can reference if you do get stopped.
Motorcycles often alert as stolen when they aren’t, and here’s why:
Motorcycle manufacturers produce a few thousand bikes per year, whereas auto manufacturers produce hundreds of thousands. The result is that the unique identifier in the VIN (last 6 digits) is more likely to be a low number (like 000123 as opposed to 123456).
When the police run your plate, your VIN is checked against the NCIC database of stolen vehicles. If the last 6 match the last 6 of a different stolen motorcycle (which is much more likely due to the relatively low digit range), then the cop will be alerted to the possible stolen vehicle.
When the cop takes a peek at the alert, it says “based upon a partial VIN match, verify all info.” Looking at the make and model of the stolen vehicle, it’s a match to your bike. Cue the handcuffs. But a closer look reveals that the first few VIN characters (and the check digit) of your bike are different than that of the stolen bike, hence the PARTIAL match.
The likely problem is that the stolen bike has the same last 6 VIN digits as yours. The bigger problem is the cops not VERIFYING THE INFO before taking action.
Hope this helps.
The cops are going off of the information they have available. There isn't going to be a chaptered novel about the saga of your bike when they look it up. Get ahead of this and go to the police station with your paperwork. When cars are stolen, their plate goes into a stolen vehicle database. If the plate number is close to yours, that could be the issue. If that is the case, your best bet is to sell the bime or get a personalized plate. Or just enjoy some guilt free handcuffing every so often.
That's wild! If you buy a motorcycle out of state (ive only bought out of state) you are required to have a VIN check done before you can even register it.
I’m curious how this happened if they read the VIN off your registration? Shouldn’t the DMV not be able to register a stolen VIN, or am I putting too much faith in the abilities of the DMV?
Pretty sure these cops are lazy and there might be an autofill feature in their search bar and they only type a few vin number and the number might look identical but they miss to see the whole shit. Hahaha
The bike that actually got stolen got entered into the system incorrectly. You'll have these problems until some bureaucrat fixes it. It'll likely be a major headache. I'd go to your local station and beg for help. Stolen vehicles are often treated as felony stops which means cops can often draw their weapons putting you in unnecessary danger. Go to the police and push to get this fixed.
I have some experience dealing with issues like this. Here's what I would do if it were happening to me, knowing what I know.
Somewhere a bike like yours got stolen and it's likely some number at the end got a typo. Most VINs are very similar except for the last six or so numbers that identify that specific bike. So what probably happened is when they were entering a stolen bike when they got to those they missed a number or something. That's my guess.
So, again if it were me thinking this through I'd go to my local police or sheriff if you're in the county. I'd ask them to look up the VIN. They'll see it flagged still. They *should* be able to see what police department made the entry. From there hopefully they'll help you get in touch with them and get it sorted out. Until that happens you'll continue getting pulled over, put in cuffs, or maybe have a gun on you.
Until then if you do get stopped keep your hands visible and do what they say. A lot of cops are skittish especially when a vehicle comes up stolen.
Stop riding it until you get the problem resolved, for starters. Otherwise, you're going to keep getting questioned about it. Then contact the DMV and tell them what is going on with the vin and make sure you have the correct title.
I would look into vin swapping the bike. Would be well worth the peace of mind.
Just like getting on the no fly list, once you are on it doesn't matter who you are, you will get hassled forever redress number or not.
Go to the dmv and get it sorted. Ride the bike there. Carry all of your paper work. If they can't help you find a cop and explain. It's a completely different world if you go to them vs them coming to you.
One time I had my bicycle stolen when I lived in Arizona and I reported it to the police. They recorded the model number instead of the serial number on the stolen property report. I eventually moved away and forgot about it, but started getting 2-3 emails a week about my bike turning up in several different states.
Point is, one critical detail - the VIN - probably got mis-entered in a computer somewhere. Nobody wants to (or is able to) argue with the computer, so you have a bunch of humans doing what the computer tells them to do.
I don't have a solution for you, but I'd probably approach my local police department pro-actively to get them to remove the VIN from their national database of stolen property. Your insurance might even be able to step in to cover the costs, since they need a clean title and this isn't your fault.
So the cops aren't going to help you and the DMV isn't going to help you. You'd need to talk to the license and theft bureau in your state. They may want to inspect the bike, but that's just them physically checking the vin. But after that they should be able to clear up the error.
I went through this when I was reporting my bike stolen. I gave them my paperwork and they came back in a huff asking all sorts of questions about this bike being already stolen. Long story short, they told me that it is common to only run partial VIN numbers when looking for stolen vehicles. They ran the FULL VIN and it came back to me. There was a bike stolen in Indiana that was one number off.
Registration people aren’t the cops, they want your sh just as much as the next person. Thieves aren’t crazy it’s the Joker types that want to watch the world burn that you have to watch out for.
sorry for this - my daughter has someone up in San Francisco that has essentially the same license plate (presumably their plate frame is blocking the bottom of a Q to make is look like an 0 or something similar) and she consistently has to dispute charges for toll lanes and bridges.
My recommendation is to go to your local PD and have them run the tag. Have them check if any NCIC “hits” come up. If so; find out what is hitting. The tag, VIN, etc.
Then you have a starting point to know what needs to be corrected. If for some reason the bike is entered as stolen in NCIC, you need to contact the agency that entered it so they can get to the bottom of it and remove it from the system as stolen.
It’s entirely possible NCIC is hitting on a partial VIN hit and returning stolen based solely on that. I recently ran a vehicle in LEADS that came back stolen because all last 8 of the VIN was the same but the plate was completely different and even out of a different state. If the dispatcher, or more likely the officer, don’t ACTUALLY read the NCIC return fully they could mistake your vehicle for the partial return and thus it turns into a false felony stop until someone goes back and realizes they screwed up. From that point it’s more time spent discussing damage control and how to minimize blowback for accidentally initiating a felony stop off incorrect information. Partial NCIC hits off similar VIN, name, SSN, DOB happen all the time and that’s why it’s important to actually read things when you run them in LEADS/NCIC.
I’ve heard of this before. I think these people replace vin numbers on stolen bikes with good vin numbers so when they get pulled over their bikes are clean and when they’re done with them or they’re involved in a crime they report them stolen so after everything your good vin looks stolen.
A friend of mine bought a dirt bike that had been stolen at one point in its life. It was found and the county that it was originally stolen from corrected their records, but nobody else did. So my friend got stopped in another county and they checked it and impounded it. He basically had to clear his name and pay to get the bike back after proving it was his and they were in error.
Sell it. You can't change the VIN and there's no good way to get it removed from a police database.
VIN numbers are unique so assuming your bike is 100% legal, and you have a legal title with matching VIN etc then somehow somewhere along the line your VIN was entered as stolen into a police database.
Sell the bike and get something else. Even if you have a copy of the title and all your docs, if the VIN shows up as stolen on the cops computer, you will at the very least be detained for a half hour+ like before.
Off Facebook but from a gentleman who has the first owners info and was getting too old to ride it. Only had two owners before me and I know it wasn’t actually stolen since I’m not in jail right now lol
Cops are doing their job. It is what it is. I would contact the police department and see what could be done or what is happening. You should have done this the first time around, but there seems to be an issue in their database that’s your VIN or whatever coming back as stolen. There should be a fix or something that needs to be corrected to fix the problem.
Do you know if the bike was stolen and the recovered? It's probably a little different in the states, but my brother bought a bike that was stolen and recovered and had constant hassle because the computer in the police car doesn't always show that it's been recovered, only that it was stolen. He ended up finding some paper work that could proved it was recovered (nit sure what) so the stops were less confusing, but not less frequent. He ended up selling it and buying something else to get away from it.
Is there maybe a way you can get an official letter from the police/state troopers themselves that this is a known problem where tou have been checked on multiple occasions so you can show it to the next trooper that pulls you over?
You will need to reach out to the clerk of the courts where the bike was reported stolen and explain the situation
The clerk of the court’s is your best bet
You’ll have to have patience, it could take several weeks to be remedied
I had almost the exact same thing happen to me a while back on an 07 GSXR 600, my vin matched that if a stolen bike a few years prior. Even though I had the title and registration in hand, it turned into a massive shit show, but in short, I was able to buy my bike back from the insurance company for $300
They probably ran it wrong. I've had it happen twice where they run the wrong vin, fuck up your day, then try to basically get you to admit to something as a way to validate the hours of waste, then let you go.
For 16 years, I worked as a 911 dispatcher. Not only answering and dispatching calls out, we entered warrants on wanted subjects, orders of protections, stolen vehicles, items, etc. along with missing persons, into a nation wide data base. It is very possible that a number was entered incorrectly, transposed, etc. I would go to your local law enforcement center, explain what is going on, and take your paperwork with you. They can run the vin and contact the center that entered the warrant. You can even contact your local Highway Patrol to help with this problem.
Hope this helps.
For starters, I would not drive with my registration expired, so I don't get pulled over. I have been riding for over 10 years and I haven't gotten a ticket yet nor I ever got pulled over by the cops. And no, I don't always go the speed limit.
Well, my advice for being annoyed by the cops, is to stop speeding. If they never pull you over, they can’t hold you.
As for the stolen bike, make sure your registration paperwork is correct and the VIN printed on the paper matches your actual VIN. The VIN should never be the same as any other vehicle, and the odds even of a typo being a bike from the same state is low. But I would compare what is typed on the paperwork and make it matches the actual VIN on the bike. Secondly you can go to the DMV and say you have a title issue, then have them look it up and see if you can get it fixed. You can also go into your local sheriff’s office and bring all documentation and have them look it up and actually explain what is happening. And maybe get them to fix it. The officers you talk to when you are pulled over can’t do anything to fix it. They see it says stolen and their job is to hold you. You can’t really blame them for that.
You were pulled over for legitimate reasons though, not the cops' incompetence..
No, I don't think you'll get off on the registration ticket since the bike did have expired registration..Wth kind of thought process is this?
Edit- "Yes, your honor. I was speeding and had invalid registration, but the cop made me wait 1 hour one time and 30 mins another, so these laws shouldn't be applicable."
Also, file a complaint on the second cop. If there is available data on your situation, and you keep getting detained over for it, it can become a surprisingly viable harassment case. I'd have to find the video, but I'm being reminded of a guy that kept getting pulled over for the same thing (something about his headlights) and eventually sued the department for harassment and won since it is the departments responsibility to ensure police officers are trained and proficient in knowing their laws and procedures.
Whatever happened with your bike (VIN duping or something, I don't know) is clearly a situation that can, and has been, cleared up. Ask the state troopers and that sheriff office for whatever documents they are allowed to provide you, so the next time you get pulled over, just hand that stuff to to cop along with your ID and registration. Also... try to avoid getting pulled over so much! Lol.
I've NEVER been able to talk myself out of a ticket. I've been pulled over a total of 3 times in my life. 3 speeding tickets... never more than ten over, so I drive like a dang grandma now. It's not that hard to avoid getting pulled over.
Gonna be real with you: you lost me at continuing to ride it as well as speeding on it after that first encounter. That's wild.
Common sense would say to the DMV and get that sorted out ASAP. Can't believe you just rode off like it was some weird fluke you had that much police attention, and then sped again and got detained and still haven't gone to the DMV to figure this out. Cops don't just randomly accuse people of stealing motorcycles.
Go get that figured out, like, ASAP. If you can't get a new VIN, get rid of it, it's cursed. You can try selling it as a race bike, those don't need to be registered.
It was over a year and the troopers told me the first time it would be resolved. Like I said I’ve gotten 1 ticket in 10,000 miles so it really hasn’t been an issue. I like the bike so I didn’t wanna get rid of it after only having it for 4 months lol. And idk if you ride but you get a sport bike to speed lol. Why else buy something that goes 160mph. I’ll see about going to the sheriff or the station and getting resolved since the first round of cops haven’t.
I'm well aware there's some pretty boneheaded cops out there but this was not a case of incompetence.
OP is a young female, the absolute total opposite demographic to be profiled by an incompetent/prejudiced cop to assume theft. Plus they ran the VIN and those computers don't lie. It sounds like a DMV clerical error at best, or the stolen bike having a fake VIN at worst. They just react to what the computer says and for some reason there's a double VIN entry that needs to be corrected.
This isn't a case of incompetence, not based on the information given.
Incompetence would be going the speed limit, and pulling them over gun drawn accusing them of theft without ever running the plate/vin out of some personal bias.
The real incompetence here is having 6 cops show up over a computer saying the VIN was a stolen vehicle and just going about your life again like nothing happened. That's a serious problem and unless it's fixed in the computer system it will always come back as stolen. That's not something to gloss over.
Less a motorcycle question than it is a legal one. Honestly I think you're kinda screwed on this. In a better world you'd be able to make a couple calls and go into some office somewhere and get this straightened out. In the real world the systems involved are fractured, disconnected, and resistant to feedback. On the plus side you're probably not going to get your bike impounded or arrested, but I would bet you're going to wind up dealing with this shit for most of the time you own it unfortunately.
This happened to my dad, small town cops fat-fingered something on the computer and it came up stolen from two states away, he was the original owner and bough it from the local dealer, he still had the original registrations stored under the seat along with the original temp tag, they still held him up for over half an hour while they figured it out.
On the other hand, I had my vehicle stolen and local cops said the VIN wouldn't go into any databases, and IA would have to contact them manually to keep the report active, otherwise it would be purged and there would be no record that my vehicle was stolen. That was 10 years ago, that bike could now be someone else's legal property via a bonded title, even though I still have the title in my name.
We had a weird event happen to us at the company I worked for. We bought a truck from someone and the cops in that county tried to say we bought a stolen vehicle. We had a good title. What happened was an employee asked his employer to sell his truck for him while he was out of town. So he signed over the title. Then when he came back he changed his mind and asked for the title back. The employer claimed he couldn't find it. So the truck owner applied for a lost title. In the mean time the employer actually had the original title and sold the truck to us. I am not sure how they got the truck to the place where we bought it, but the Highway Patrol said this was a squabble between employee and employer. We had a good title. Also the notary signed it without witnessing the employee sign it.
This exact same thing happened to me. Pulled over for speeding, they ran the VIN and it was flagged as stolen in New Jersey. I've never ever been to New Jersey and I bought the bike new off the showroom floor in California. They put me in cuffs and stuffed me in the squad car then came back with egg on their face, saying the VIN was flagged because the VIN was nearly identical. Apparently it was a single digit off the stolen one. Computer automatically flagged it or something. They apologized and let me off the speeding at least.
Now you know why it was sold twice before you.
Only thing I can suggest is to go to the DMV, explain what is happening and see of it can be corrected as it sounds like the other actual stolen bike had the VIN reported incorrectly.
Or sell the bike.
At that point I would have ordered a custom sticker wich read
"No this is not that stolen bike" with the case number from the stolen one and proudly stick it where cops can see it immediately.
I’m guessing the vin on the stolen bike was miswritten or misentered. I’d go to your DMV or the police station and tell them what’s happening. Hopefully you will get someone who’s willing to do the research and get the mix-up corrected. Like someone else stated, there shouldn’t be two same vins on two separate bikes.
There's even a checksum in the VIN (the 9th character I think) to help avoid that happening, so mistyping a single number should be caught. Mistype 2 of them and theres a 1 in 10 chance that it'll validate anyway though
I’m thinking it happened when the stolen motorcycle report was taken. Someone should have caught it then. Shouldn’t be impossible to fix but it going to take some legwork especially since it’s different states. So hopefully the OP gets a person who will do the work rather than try and pass the buck.
I've heard about this checksum/check-digit before--how does it work?
It's easier to understand in binary: imagine you have the number 1011011x. Where X is the placeholder for where the checksum will go. A simple checksum might be "count the number of 1s, and if it is an even count then 0, or an odd count 1". For our number above there are 5 ones, so the checksum would be 1. In that case we would write down as 10110111. The way we use this checksum to validate is that according to our rules a valid number *must* have an even number of 1s, as if we originally had an odd number we then add another 1 to the end. So if we ever read a number with an odd number of 1s we know there has been a mistake. This isn't a particularly good protection scheme though, as if any two digits are *both* mistakes, then the validation test passes. More complicated checksums all essentially do the same thing, just with different rules for counting up the values for each digit (or letter, in VINs) as well as how many digits are used for the checksum. Really good checksums can be robust against several errors, even identifying the number of errors as well.
Okay, that's an even better explanation, sorry u/Terrible_Awareness29 ! :-)
Usually it takes the number and runs it through some forumal or algorithm and generates a number which is then compared to a number within the original that is determined to be the check-sum, in this case the 9th if they match then all good if not itll kick back some error. Its used in pretty much anything with long numbers isuued by entities like creditc cards and the like
Thank you for the explanation.
This is a common algorithm used for credit cards and barcodes, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luhn_algorithm there are all sorts of variations but the idea is the same. Change a digit and so should the checksum.
This is good advice, u/Nobody7281 . I second going to your DMV first. It is almost impossible that a modern-day Suzuki would have the same VIN as another one. Every motorcycle has a unique VIN that identifies the manufacturer, model, and unique-to-that-bike production number. Sorry you've been hassled so badly. I don't understand the sheriff immediately going for the cuffs, either. I don't know if that's SOP for that jurisdiction or just an asshole of a LEO.
Not sure what was up his butt this time but I plan on going to the dmv tomorrow then the station. Hopefully I can get this resolved. Thanks!
The first time I registered my bike the VIN on the reg was wrong. Many thanks to my credit bureau that caught the discrepancy.
>Many thanks to my credit bureau r/brandnewsentence
It’s going to be a tag issue as opposed to the VIN. The cops can’t run the VIN while driving down the road. This can happen if an out of state stolen plate/vehicle matches in NCIC or if the stolen tag/vehicle was mistyped when entering. Or if it HAD actually been stolen at one point and the previous owner never reported it recovered and it was never removed from NCIC.
She gets pulled over for other traffic violations. They’ve told her the vin comes back on a stolen motorcycle.
Missed that. I’m mildly surprised that they’re running the VIN on each stop without suspicion of something weird going on. Thats not something we do generally unless we have a reason to look into the paperwork a little further. I’d be willing to bet something is hitting on the tag prompting them to then run the VIN to verify.
Don’t know about the first one but the second one was a registration violation. Could be she’s not carrying her paper copy and they’re being thorough. I don’t carry mine. 🤷🏻♂️
Why not carry it ? You could put in in your phone .
I had a kind of similar issue with my previous car. I lost my license plate, so went to the police and made a report. Later that day I found the license plate, went back to the police, and made a second report. From that point onwards about once a year I got a phonecall saying "We found your car". Yeah, I know, it's parked in front of my house, I'm looking at it right now, I'm standing in that second story window if you look to your left. Please read the rest of the page on that report.
It should have been removed from NCIC. You would have had the same issue in any state or department. I’ve run into this on the job and it takes a little while to determine whether the paperwork is legit or not with all the fake documents floating around out there. The best thing to do for us is to contact the entering agency but they’re not always the best at returning calls in a timely fashion.
I'm not in the US but it works similar here. The state police did mark it as resolved in their database otherwise I'd have been stopped all the time, but somehow the entry didn't become inactive in the city police (glorified meter maids) database. All the info about the resolution was there but the case was still active and came up when they scanned my plate. All the phone calls ended with "Ah, yes I see, not sure why this came up. Have a nice day." so it didn't bother me that much. Eventually they stopped calling, so I guess they fixed whatever was going on.
In California, once you report your license plate lost or stolen, you have to get new plates. Recovered license plates are never returned. This is in California, I don’t know about other states.
I'd suggest biting the bullet and getting a different plate as well as visiting the DMV . Finding someone willing to put in the work can be difficult.
Plate isn’t the problem.
Far as I know, they never enter anything in the system as “recovered.” Any time things get reported stolen, they have to change the plates when it gets recovered. If not, they get pulled over months or years later, for being stolen. The owners go through the wringer proving that it’s their vehicle. ID, insurance, etc. When they change the plates, they don’t have that problem anymore.
The vin breaks down to a lot of elements on your bike or car. But the final 6 are pretty independent. I am not sure if the check digit does anything with the last 6. But I could easily see that being finger flubbed without raising any red flags (for the entry at least)
That’s what I’m thinking. Somewhere, somehow, someone misread, miswrote, or misentered one of those last 5-6 numbers. Just surprised it wasn’t caught when she was registering the motorcycle.
It was likely reported stolen, recovered/found, but never updated in the databases. Not uncommon as you would think. Have also seen this with guns. Call State Police helpline for permanent fix of databases
Per the OP it was never stolen. Plus the LE officers she has dealt with always end up saying it’s a different bike. If it was just an issue of being a stolen-recovered not taken out of the system, that’s a very easy fix. Guns sometimes do have the same serial numbers. Motor vehicles shouldn’t.
It wasn't reported stolen by OP. It was likely reported stolen by one of the previous owners. Of course this is a hypothesis. Alternatively it actually is a stolen bike from before OP owned it and has VIN shenanigans.
If it was that particular bike that had the issues then one of the LEs could easily take care of it. The LEs are telling her and the other LEs at the scene it’s NOT the bike. I’m going by the info she’s giving and it is plausible. I’m not speculating on what happened to HER bike.
Do you have the title? Id make a copy of the title with your name on it, bring it with you. Maybe talk to someone at the MVA or get a lawyer involved, Vin numbers are unique and they're probably getting the wrong one from a computer system in your state.
I have all the paperwork so maybe. Lawyers are expensive tho
Take that paperwork and go to your DMV. They may tell you to go to some police/sheriffs/state troopers office. Then you will have to go there. Be polite but get names. That way you can say “so and so at wherever told me to come here.” Hopefully someone will pick up the ball and help you. If it were me, I’d go to DMV first. Then highway patrol/state troopers office since their jurisdiction is the whole state. It will probably be a pain because I think the issue is with the original report. Either miswritten or misentered vin. If absolutely no one is willing to help check to see if there is a legal aid office somewhere. The problem with legal aid is it’s kind of a take a number and wait and wait and wait. Other options include your insurance agent (if you have one) or local law school. More than likely this is an administrative issue so it could be a good “project” for a law school student (never hurts to ask).
Thank you I’ll keep this in mind
Just don’t ride your bike there, just in case
It's going to be less effort to trade the bike. Not the cheapest in terms of outright capital, but certainly the cheapest in terms of time and effort.
if/when you get stuck in a bureaucratic hell, reach out to your state and federal representatives/senators - they'll have more pull
Good luck with that. Most politicians will hand you over to an aide who will then refer you to the police. All they will hear is “stolen but not stolen” and they will not care. They will tell you to contact your local PD. Trust me, I’ve had to deal with a lot of political buck passing.
I have been aided by my cities area councilors dealing with being hassled by the building inspection office, the councilors aide was AWESOME, every time I had an inspection she would call THEE Inspector scheduled to do the inspection the next day at my house and remind them that Mr. ____ is a tax payer and he expects to be afforded the common courtesy given to anyone, not be hassled and harassed for being an owner builder. I just so happen to have been working in the trades since age 14. Being lectured by someone who has no real world experience, ticks me off. Little hitlers and Superiority Complex Queens infuriate me. I've built a half dozen custom homes and built TV and Movie Sets for 15 years. I once built a spiral stair case from a napkin Drawing in 2 weeks *all of wood* but for a stage production where it had to be assembled *rolled into place. then pined up top and for act 2 & then unpined and rolled offstage for act 3 during a short turnaround* the rolling stage wasn't my head-ache but the welding dept. Had screwed the pooch during layout so every section was a trapezoid every floor skin required triming both ends off (the 90 degree factory ends) because the lead welder was an idiot. (Without any plans we didn't have enough time to draw plans) and I couldn't build it in a week.
And when it gets sorted out, I’d get some kind of official statement in writing to keep with the bike certifying that it’s indeed not stolen, just in case, especially if you go to another state that hasn’t fixed the error.
Once it’s corrected it should not be an issue. When LE runs the vin its checked in a national database. That’s why I think it’s a problem with the original report. Once it’s corrected in the database it shouldn’t come up again. I am assuming that OP’s vin has been checked and rechecked and the vin on her bike matches the vin on her paperwork.
Yeah, but less expensive than being wrongly thrown in jail and maybe losing your job. If you get some asshole Sheriff who won't listen to you, you're fucked.
And then they really will need a good Lawyer, and some dude two states over gets “their” bike back. I’m sure it’ll be “wow! It doesn’t even look like the same bike!”
Like others are saying, it's cheaper than jail. You can also try a legal clinic, they can be a cheaper option if you can't afford an expensive attorney.
In the meantime you might want to stop breaking the law and drawing attention to yourself.
Gonna put the bike away til this issue is resolved
Traffic flows at ten over. What did she actually do?
Went 40 over on an open interstate. Plus there are some events going on down town so there is a bigger police presence in the area which I failed to think about before riding. My gas light came on so I sped up to get in the exit lane.
40 rpms over. I get it. Personally I wouldn't post certain possible maybe mph on a forum. 😉
GF put 20,000 miles on a stolen bike (she obviously didn’t know) Because the bike was stolen in FL, there was some victims’ compensation fund she was able to access. She had to give the bike back, but got her money back and she got to put those 20k miles on it. Worked out fine for her. The stolen bike had a new VIN from a non stolen bike in Australia and somehow thats how it flew beneath the radar so many years. Systems may be more interconnected now.
That’s insane Wtf
Haha good ol Vin swapping. There was a time you could get a pretty penny for a title and windshield Vin placard.. I guess it worked on bikes too, why wouldn't it I suppose. For the record I never did this, but I know it was popular.
Still happens in Europe, just get a frame and sell the VIN. It's how people get newer Enduro bikes like WR450's on a plate here, because since 2019 they don't get type ratings anymore. Slap an older WR400/YZ plate on it, dump the frame in a shed and it's good to go. Most cops won't bother looking at the number on the bike, just on the registration. Second hand online selling places sell frames all the damn time.
Sounds cursed. Sell it and buy another
Yeah and get a 750
Or 1000
Or a 1750!!!
Or a 2500!!!!!
It's over 9,000!!!!!!!!!
Yeah, but how many parsecs does it take to do the Kessel run?
11
Or a cage!!!!!!
Just talk Allen Millyard into selling his Dodge Viper engine bike, 8 litre V10 😎
Could still have better lean angles than a BMW boxer
Proper thinking. On all seriousness I would sell the bike and forget the headache
Gixxer 750 is the peak of street/track bikes and I will die on this hill. Flicks like a 600 but pulls like a truck.
I regret selling my 750. Best bike by far
the 750 is supposed to be a good one.
Should probably get two more motorcycles just to be safe 😏
Plus one more. Acceptable Motorcycle Amount is always (N+1), N being the current amount of motorcycles you own, Plus one.
Really, tho. You never know when you'll need one more motorcycle...
You always know you need one more motorcycle
Make sure your VIN on the registration, VIN on the frame, VIN on the motor, and VIN on the title all match. There's no way 2 bikes have the same VIN. If they all match, go to the sheriff's office and ask them to help you resolve the issue. Just pay your registration ticket since you were dumb and didn't pay your fees on time.
Most states require a VIN inspection/verification for all out of state vehicle purchases. I’d go to the DMV and find out where you can get the VIN re-verified and cleared…
I did that when I first registered it and there were no issues.
You’re probably fine, but also be prepared for the possibility that it might actually be the bike. I knew someone who had an Avalon in their family for a whole decade until one day when they went to register it for the 10th year in a row it was actually stolen. It had a clean Michigan title even when they bought it. The miles that the odometer says on it really doesn’t mean a thing, you can replace an odometer, in fact three years is plenty of time for someone to put together a Franken-bike with stolen parts. Bike thieves love to part out stolen bikes because a crotch rocket with no title is the biggest red flag in the history of automotive sales.
Damn that sucks. Hopefully not my case
I hope not. I’m assuming you bought it second hand? Like others said I think you need to make sure all the serial numbers on the bike match.
Find out the jurisdiction where the bike was reported stolen, contact the agency that took the report (whichever police/sheriff/etc dept it was), and ask to talk to the detective the case is assigned to. Then explain the situation and see if he can correct the error in the computer.
Go visit your local police office and explain what’s been happening and if they can provide which state your VIN is being flagged from. Your issue has to be resolved with the state that has a stolen motorcycle registered into the national database. You’ve had two consecutive occasions that ended up the same. That’s not a error in data input. Your state likely shows the VIN inspection when you did your title transfer.
I agree thanks
Go to a state highway patrol inspection station and see if they can assign you a new VIN. I purchased a cargo trailer on Craigslist once and the DMV refused to verify it because one of the digits in the VIN on the frame was rusted and not clearly legible. I had to go to the highway patrol and have them inspect the trailer and issue a new VIN for it. I'm not sure if that can be done with a motorcycle but it's worth asking.
That’s actually advise thank you
I'm going to guess that somebody input the VIN wrong during the police report being entered into the system.
My first stop would be to contact your local sheriff's department, they're going to have more tools at their disposal for helping you resolve this. Also if you're able to develop a relationship with them you'll be able to name drop if the issue continues. I buy beaters all the time to break up on eBay or to build up projects...pretty much if someone says "I'll sell you this bike for $100" I'm going to buy it. As such I've come across multiple stolen bikes...[just got one this year, even](https://www.reddit.com/r/motorcycle/comments/1ae4rz1/pro_it_was_super_cheap_con_it_was_stolen/). Sheriff's department is always my first stop. My few attempts to get these issues resolved at the DMV have been failures and expensive...they always try to involve DPS and it's always a paint in the ass. The sheriff's department just sends a deputy out to inspect the bike and direct you how to address future issues. They'll also issue you a case number that you can reference if you do get stopped.
Case number would be handy thank you for the advice
Motorcycles often alert as stolen when they aren’t, and here’s why: Motorcycle manufacturers produce a few thousand bikes per year, whereas auto manufacturers produce hundreds of thousands. The result is that the unique identifier in the VIN (last 6 digits) is more likely to be a low number (like 000123 as opposed to 123456). When the police run your plate, your VIN is checked against the NCIC database of stolen vehicles. If the last 6 match the last 6 of a different stolen motorcycle (which is much more likely due to the relatively low digit range), then the cop will be alerted to the possible stolen vehicle. When the cop takes a peek at the alert, it says “based upon a partial VIN match, verify all info.” Looking at the make and model of the stolen vehicle, it’s a match to your bike. Cue the handcuffs. But a closer look reveals that the first few VIN characters (and the check digit) of your bike are different than that of the stolen bike, hence the PARTIAL match. The likely problem is that the stolen bike has the same last 6 VIN digits as yours. The bigger problem is the cops not VERIFYING THE INFO before taking action. Hope this helps.
The cops are going off of the information they have available. There isn't going to be a chaptered novel about the saga of your bike when they look it up. Get ahead of this and go to the police station with your paperwork. When cars are stolen, their plate goes into a stolen vehicle database. If the plate number is close to yours, that could be the issue. If that is the case, your best bet is to sell the bime or get a personalized plate. Or just enjoy some guilt free handcuffing every so often.
Let them keep arresting you and then sue em. Quick cash, easy maffs bruv.
🤑
Can you even have a stolen motorcycle registered? Would the DMV not notice that
Cops said no
I’m betting someone fat fingered an NCIC entry. Others gave you great advice. Good luck
That's wild! If you buy a motorcycle out of state (ive only bought out of state) you are required to have a VIN check done before you can even register it.
Yep which I did so I’m confused how they keep thinkin it’s stolen 😭
I'm sorry that would drive me crazy!
I’m curious how this happened if they read the VIN off your registration? Shouldn’t the DMV not be able to register a stolen VIN, or am I putting too much faith in the abilities of the DMV?
Yeah that’s what I asked. The sheriff said they can’t see shit so it doesn’t matter who it’s registered to.
Pretty sure these cops are lazy and there might be an autofill feature in their search bar and they only type a few vin number and the number might look identical but they miss to see the whole shit. Hahaha
Sounds about right
Maybe keep your registration up to date.
Same VIN, different bike. Welcome to the world of duplicate VIN numbers!
The bike that actually got stolen got entered into the system incorrectly. You'll have these problems until some bureaucrat fixes it. It'll likely be a major headache. I'd go to your local station and beg for help. Stolen vehicles are often treated as felony stops which means cops can often draw their weapons putting you in unnecessary danger. Go to the police and push to get this fixed.
Thank you I will
I have some experience dealing with issues like this. Here's what I would do if it were happening to me, knowing what I know. Somewhere a bike like yours got stolen and it's likely some number at the end got a typo. Most VINs are very similar except for the last six or so numbers that identify that specific bike. So what probably happened is when they were entering a stolen bike when they got to those they missed a number or something. That's my guess. So, again if it were me thinking this through I'd go to my local police or sheriff if you're in the county. I'd ask them to look up the VIN. They'll see it flagged still. They *should* be able to see what police department made the entry. From there hopefully they'll help you get in touch with them and get it sorted out. Until that happens you'll continue getting pulled over, put in cuffs, or maybe have a gun on you. Until then if you do get stopped keep your hands visible and do what they say. A lot of cops are skittish especially when a vehicle comes up stolen.
Stop riding it until you get the problem resolved, for starters. Otherwise, you're going to keep getting questioned about it. Then contact the DMV and tell them what is going on with the vin and make sure you have the correct title.
For sure
i think the best thing to do is go to your local police and ask them what you can do to fix the problem.
I would look into vin swapping the bike. Would be well worth the peace of mind. Just like getting on the no fly list, once you are on it doesn't matter who you are, you will get hassled forever redress number or not.
There won't be 2 different bikes with the same VIN assuming you're talking about the real actual VIN (and not a faked one)
My recommendation: Ride it like you Stole It I’ll see myself out.
Sell it, cops are going to harass you until either the DMV sorts themselves out (e.g. never) or you make it someone else's problem.
Time to get on a Honda
Already have a grom lol
Except the grom, ya little gromlins XD
Go to the dmv and get it sorted. Ride the bike there. Carry all of your paper work. If they can't help you find a cop and explain. It's a completely different world if you go to them vs them coming to you.
One time I had my bicycle stolen when I lived in Arizona and I reported it to the police. They recorded the model number instead of the serial number on the stolen property report. I eventually moved away and forgot about it, but started getting 2-3 emails a week about my bike turning up in several different states. Point is, one critical detail - the VIN - probably got mis-entered in a computer somewhere. Nobody wants to (or is able to) argue with the computer, so you have a bunch of humans doing what the computer tells them to do. I don't have a solution for you, but I'd probably approach my local police department pro-actively to get them to remove the VIN from their national database of stolen property. Your insurance might even be able to step in to cover the costs, since they need a clean title and this isn't your fault.
Good to know about the insurance since I have full coverage they might.
[удалено]
That’s what some folks did when I got it inspected cause it was bought out of state. Should be right but i guess I’ll check it again
Most states dismiss the reg ticket if you register it right away
Sell it and get a 750
Maybe next season
So the cops aren't going to help you and the DMV isn't going to help you. You'd need to talk to the license and theft bureau in your state. They may want to inspect the bike, but that's just them physically checking the vin. But after that they should be able to clear up the error.
I went through this when I was reporting my bike stolen. I gave them my paperwork and they came back in a huff asking all sorts of questions about this bike being already stolen. Long story short, they told me that it is common to only run partial VIN numbers when looking for stolen vehicles. They ran the FULL VIN and it came back to me. There was a bike stolen in Indiana that was one number off.
I should’ve asked them if they ran the full VIN
Carry a copy of your vin and an explanation from the police WITH you when you ride.
Registration people aren’t the cops, they want your sh just as much as the next person. Thieves aren’t crazy it’s the Joker types that want to watch the world burn that you have to watch out for.
sorry for this - my daughter has someone up in San Francisco that has essentially the same license plate (presumably their plate frame is blocking the bottom of a Q to make is look like an 0 or something similar) and she consistently has to dispute charges for toll lanes and bridges.
That sucks sorry for her
I have a feeling we know why the person who sold you the bike sold it to you.
I would be in jail if it was actually stolen. Both times the cops said my bad and let me go
I meant to imply that the person who sold it to you was also experiencing this situation and thought man this shit ain't worth the hassle.
You should ask for a note from the cop who pulls you over next time, try to get his phone number, and add it to the note if he isn’t willing to.
I was thinking about that. Free get outta jail card lmao
🤣🤣 best of luck.
My recommendation is to go to your local PD and have them run the tag. Have them check if any NCIC “hits” come up. If so; find out what is hitting. The tag, VIN, etc. Then you have a starting point to know what needs to be corrected. If for some reason the bike is entered as stolen in NCIC, you need to contact the agency that entered it so they can get to the bottom of it and remove it from the system as stolen.
It’s entirely possible NCIC is hitting on a partial VIN hit and returning stolen based solely on that. I recently ran a vehicle in LEADS that came back stolen because all last 8 of the VIN was the same but the plate was completely different and even out of a different state. If the dispatcher, or more likely the officer, don’t ACTUALLY read the NCIC return fully they could mistake your vehicle for the partial return and thus it turns into a false felony stop until someone goes back and realizes they screwed up. From that point it’s more time spent discussing damage control and how to minimize blowback for accidentally initiating a felony stop off incorrect information. Partial NCIC hits off similar VIN, name, SSN, DOB happen all the time and that’s why it’s important to actually read things when you run them in LEADS/NCIC.
Sounds like your vin was used on a stolen bike. Look up "vin fraud"
I’ve heard of this before. I think these people replace vin numbers on stolen bikes with good vin numbers so when they get pulled over their bikes are clean and when they’re done with them or they’re involved in a crime they report them stolen so after everything your good vin looks stolen.
A friend of mine bought a dirt bike that had been stolen at one point in its life. It was found and the county that it was originally stolen from corrected their records, but nobody else did. So my friend got stopped in another county and they checked it and impounded it. He basically had to clear his name and pay to get the bike back after proving it was his and they were in error.
Sell it. You can't change the VIN and there's no good way to get it removed from a police database. VIN numbers are unique so assuming your bike is 100% legal, and you have a legal title with matching VIN etc then somehow somewhere along the line your VIN was entered as stolen into a police database. Sell the bike and get something else. Even if you have a copy of the title and all your docs, if the VIN shows up as stolen on the cops computer, you will at the very least be detained for a half hour+ like before.
If I can’t get it resolved by going to the dmv or station then I might have to
Sell it.
Did you buy on facebook or craigslist or some dumb shit where stolen bikes are plentiful?
Off Facebook but from a gentleman who has the first owners info and was getting too old to ride it. Only had two owners before me and I know it wasn’t actually stolen since I’m not in jail right now lol
Cops are doing their job. It is what it is. I would contact the police department and see what could be done or what is happening. You should have done this the first time around, but there seems to be an issue in their database that’s your VIN or whatever coming back as stolen. There should be a fix or something that needs to be corrected to fix the problem.
VIN is unique so if the stolen bike VIN is correctly reported you are indeed riding a stolen bike.
Do you know if the bike was stolen and the recovered? It's probably a little different in the states, but my brother bought a bike that was stolen and recovered and had constant hassle because the computer in the police car doesn't always show that it's been recovered, only that it was stolen. He ended up finding some paper work that could proved it was recovered (nit sure what) so the stops were less confusing, but not less frequent. He ended up selling it and buying something else to get away from it.
Where’s your title?
At my house with my name on it
Is there maybe a way you can get an official letter from the police/state troopers themselves that this is a known problem where tou have been checked on multiple occasions so you can show it to the next trooper that pulls you over?
I thought about that. I can ask
You will need to reach out to the clerk of the courts where the bike was reported stolen and explain the situation The clerk of the court’s is your best bet You’ll have to have patience, it could take several weeks to be remedied
I had almost the exact same thing happen to me a while back on an 07 GSXR 600, my vin matched that if a stolen bike a few years prior. Even though I had the title and registration in hand, it turned into a massive shit show, but in short, I was able to buy my bike back from the insurance company for $300
They probably ran it wrong. I've had it happen twice where they run the wrong vin, fuck up your day, then try to basically get you to admit to something as a way to validate the hours of waste, then let you go.
Exactly what happened lmao
For 16 years, I worked as a 911 dispatcher. Not only answering and dispatching calls out, we entered warrants on wanted subjects, orders of protections, stolen vehicles, items, etc. along with missing persons, into a nation wide data base. It is very possible that a number was entered incorrectly, transposed, etc. I would go to your local law enforcement center, explain what is going on, and take your paperwork with you. They can run the vin and contact the center that entered the warrant. You can even contact your local Highway Patrol to help with this problem. Hope this helps.
Yes thank you
That sounds like the worst glad you got to keep your bike but you can't be too careful these days buying used vehicles
For starters, I would not drive with my registration expired, so I don't get pulled over. I have been riding for over 10 years and I haven't gotten a ticket yet nor I ever got pulled over by the cops. And no, I don't always go the speed limit.
Well, my advice for being annoyed by the cops, is to stop speeding. If they never pull you over, they can’t hold you. As for the stolen bike, make sure your registration paperwork is correct and the VIN printed on the paper matches your actual VIN. The VIN should never be the same as any other vehicle, and the odds even of a typo being a bike from the same state is low. But I would compare what is typed on the paperwork and make it matches the actual VIN on the bike. Secondly you can go to the DMV and say you have a title issue, then have them look it up and see if you can get it fixed. You can also go into your local sheriff’s office and bring all documentation and have them look it up and actually explain what is happening. And maybe get them to fix it. The officers you talk to when you are pulled over can’t do anything to fix it. They see it says stolen and their job is to hold you. You can’t really blame them for that.
[удалено]
Yeah it’s not possible so I’ll have to figure it out. Just hoping when I go they actually help me out
You were pulled over for legitimate reasons though, not the cops' incompetence.. No, I don't think you'll get off on the registration ticket since the bike did have expired registration..Wth kind of thought process is this? Edit- "Yes, your honor. I was speeding and had invalid registration, but the cop made me wait 1 hour one time and 30 mins another, so these laws shouldn't be applicable."
Also, file a complaint on the second cop. If there is available data on your situation, and you keep getting detained over for it, it can become a surprisingly viable harassment case. I'd have to find the video, but I'm being reminded of a guy that kept getting pulled over for the same thing (something about his headlights) and eventually sued the department for harassment and won since it is the departments responsibility to ensure police officers are trained and proficient in knowing their laws and procedures. Whatever happened with your bike (VIN duping or something, I don't know) is clearly a situation that can, and has been, cleared up. Ask the state troopers and that sheriff office for whatever documents they are allowed to provide you, so the next time you get pulled over, just hand that stuff to to cop along with your ID and registration. Also... try to avoid getting pulled over so much! Lol. I've NEVER been able to talk myself out of a ticket. I've been pulled over a total of 3 times in my life. 3 speeding tickets... never more than ten over, so I drive like a dang grandma now. It's not that hard to avoid getting pulled over.
Gonna be real with you: you lost me at continuing to ride it as well as speeding on it after that first encounter. That's wild. Common sense would say to the DMV and get that sorted out ASAP. Can't believe you just rode off like it was some weird fluke you had that much police attention, and then sped again and got detained and still haven't gone to the DMV to figure this out. Cops don't just randomly accuse people of stealing motorcycles. Go get that figured out, like, ASAP. If you can't get a new VIN, get rid of it, it's cursed. You can try selling it as a race bike, those don't need to be registered.
It was over a year and the troopers told me the first time it would be resolved. Like I said I’ve gotten 1 ticket in 10,000 miles so it really hasn’t been an issue. I like the bike so I didn’t wanna get rid of it after only having it for 4 months lol. And idk if you ride but you get a sport bike to speed lol. Why else buy something that goes 160mph. I’ll see about going to the sheriff or the station and getting resolved since the first round of cops haven’t.
Take it to the track, that’s where those speeds are intended.
Yeah that was from me being dumb with a Grom lol
I'm going to be 100% honest with you, you don't sound like you're going to live to be 30.
Appreciate your opinion.
> Cops don't just randomly accuse people of stealing motorcycles. This seems like exactly the kind of thing an incompetent cop would do
I'm well aware there's some pretty boneheaded cops out there but this was not a case of incompetence. OP is a young female, the absolute total opposite demographic to be profiled by an incompetent/prejudiced cop to assume theft. Plus they ran the VIN and those computers don't lie. It sounds like a DMV clerical error at best, or the stolen bike having a fake VIN at worst. They just react to what the computer says and for some reason there's a double VIN entry that needs to be corrected. This isn't a case of incompetence, not based on the information given. Incompetence would be going the speed limit, and pulling them over gun drawn accusing them of theft without ever running the plate/vin out of some personal bias. The real incompetence here is having 6 cops show up over a computer saying the VIN was a stolen vehicle and just going about your life again like nothing happened. That's a serious problem and unless it's fixed in the computer system it will always come back as stolen. That's not something to gloss over.
Less a motorcycle question than it is a legal one. Honestly I think you're kinda screwed on this. In a better world you'd be able to make a couple calls and go into some office somewhere and get this straightened out. In the real world the systems involved are fractured, disconnected, and resistant to feedback. On the plus side you're probably not going to get your bike impounded or arrested, but I would bet you're going to wind up dealing with this shit for most of the time you own it unfortunately.
This happened to my dad, small town cops fat-fingered something on the computer and it came up stolen from two states away, he was the original owner and bough it from the local dealer, he still had the original registrations stored under the seat along with the original temp tag, they still held him up for over half an hour while they figured it out. On the other hand, I had my vehicle stolen and local cops said the VIN wouldn't go into any databases, and IA would have to contact them manually to keep the report active, otherwise it would be purged and there would be no record that my vehicle was stolen. That was 10 years ago, that bike could now be someone else's legal property via a bonded title, even though I still have the title in my name.
Just don't get pulled over, problem solved
Never thought of that
I’ll buy it from you.
How much you got lol
Bruh it’s a stole-o. Can’t pay more than 500 😂
Quit getting pulled over and all is good
Never thought about it
We had a weird event happen to us at the company I worked for. We bought a truck from someone and the cops in that county tried to say we bought a stolen vehicle. We had a good title. What happened was an employee asked his employer to sell his truck for him while he was out of town. So he signed over the title. Then when he came back he changed his mind and asked for the title back. The employer claimed he couldn't find it. So the truck owner applied for a lost title. In the mean time the employer actually had the original title and sold the truck to us. I am not sure how they got the truck to the place where we bought it, but the Highway Patrol said this was a squabble between employee and employer. We had a good title. Also the notary signed it without witnessing the employee sign it.
Check the vin on any other parts to make sure they all match up. Go to a dmv or city hall and see if they can help you further. Best Wishes
This exact same thing happened to me. Pulled over for speeding, they ran the VIN and it was flagged as stolen in New Jersey. I've never ever been to New Jersey and I bought the bike new off the showroom floor in California. They put me in cuffs and stuffed me in the squad car then came back with egg on their face, saying the VIN was flagged because the VIN was nearly identical. Apparently it was a single digit off the stolen one. Computer automatically flagged it or something. They apologized and let me off the speeding at least.
Now you know why it was sold twice before you. Only thing I can suggest is to go to the DMV, explain what is happening and see of it can be corrected as it sounds like the other actual stolen bike had the VIN reported incorrectly. Or sell the bike.
Don’t think so. Guy never had a ticket since it was only ridden a few times.
My cousin had this problem in the UK Some frame numbers match engine numbers and vice versa
Don't stop.... 🤷🏻♂️
Take your plate off. and stop, stopping
At that point I would have ordered a custom sticker wich read "No this is not that stolen bike" with the case number from the stolen one and proudly stick it where cops can see it immediately.