There is a story on Fox news showing a woman (1 of 40) whose
Defender was seized by feds. WTF?

 

Homeland Security took my 110 - Defender Source

 

been going on for a while sooner or later someone was going to get caught.

One thing I don't understand everybody goes crazy about the government going after illegally imported Defenders, leave the poor defender alone, yahda, yhada,yahda.

But what about the poor Land Rover owner who had their truck stolen, VIN changed to an older one and import it into the US.
The poor bastard may have been saving for years to get that new Defender, only to have it shipped here with an 83 VIN on it.

let me put it this way:
if your going to attach a old VIN to a truck to import it into the US illegally are you going to pay $60k for it? NO.
your going to buy a stolen one for a 10th the price and change the VIN and import that one.

Why waste the extra $50k when you don't have too, right. Its illegal anyway, who cares if its stolen, attach a old VIN and ship it out you will probably get away with it for a while.

SO lets not act like no one is being hurt here, there is a reason why Defenders are the number one stolen vehicle in the UK, because they are being exported to places like the US with old VIN on them.

JMHO

Light grey 90 stolen this morning

 

The vast majority of the trucks on that list are in no imaginable way stolen. They are OLD trucks that either Land Rover North America screwed up when providing the VIN info (the 6 trucks that have already been returned) or they are off by less than a year of the legal import date.

See the PDF here: Defender Source - View Single Post - Homeland Security took my 110

Scroll to page 16 on the PDF, and you can see what the government thinks is wrong. Basically they think some of the trucks were imported early. But if you look closely they are ALL over 25 years old now. (The ones that show to be from 2000 are clearly mistakes, and Land Rover NA has fessed up to their mistake, and made it right, and those trucks have been returned).

So it all boils down to SOMEONE imported the trucks, perhaps a year early. The CBP blessed them import and let the trucks in. The trucks are NOW certainly old enough to be in the country, and the government is going after them because one of THEIR own departments screwed up and let them in early. It's not like this stuff is cocaine, when it's illegal no matter what, so even if CBP accidentally let some in, it's still illegal. These are trucks that if they came in today they are old enough. And not a one of the owners, to my knowledge, is the importer. Some have claimed to the be the 3rd or 4th owner, since importation. How would you feel if you bought a car, with a clear title, from a licensed used car dealer, and then the government comes and says that the car was only 24 not 25, 4 year ago when it was imported, so we are going to take it.

 

returning 6 trucks does not tell me that this was all a mistake on the part of LRNA or CBP return them all, and i will agree.
and saying that they are old enough now; is like saying the statute of limitations ran out.

I hope every gets there truck back, but I look at some of the ads from (i forget the name gb4x4 or something like that) and you could pretty much tell by the prices that something was going on. the listed perfect running and looking defender for approx. $10k, that kind of sets off a bell in my head.

 

No. Saying they are old enough now is like saying that if you brought the car in today, you'd have no issues.

So it went through all the correct processes. They approved it for entry. And now they are saying. Oops, we are taking your truck. A truck that would be completely legal right now.

 

Read my comment AFTER "or"

I didn't say they were all JLRNA's fault. At least 6 were. The rest, if you read the PDF, were off by a year, 3 years ago. So they aren't too new at all. And instead of punishing the CBP guy that screwed up 3 years ago, or perhaps the guy that imported them, they are punishing the unknowing purchaser.

 

well that is what they are doing correct they are going after the imported by going thru his records and tracking down the vehicles, correct?
Just because they have been sold doesn't mean that they don't have to seize them until a finding is made. correct?
so I guess they have come to finding on 6 trucks and returned them, correct?
what happens if you buy a stolen car at an auto auction, it is seized to used against the seller who ran it threw the auction, correct?
then i finding is made as should it go back to the original owner or the new purchaser.
I've been threw it. is it right maybe not? is it the law? yes.

 

No. They are going after the trucks... NOT the importer. They aren't being seized as evidence. Read the PDF... the trucks themselves are the defendant on this arrest warrant. There is another separate case against the importer.


No, they aren't evidence. They have already decided that they are contraband, without talking to any owner. And you have to PROVE THEY AREN'T. The total opposite of innocent until proven guilty.

No. They were already taken, and a kind lawyer donate his time to help prove the government was wrong, after the fact. No trial or hearing would have been held.

That's not what is happening here. The cars themselves are being questioned, not the importer. Read the warrant, it isn't a search warrant trying to find evidence, it's an arrest warrant to seize the trucks.

This isn't about stolen vehicles. Nothing in the warrant or anywhere else talks about stolen vehicles. It's about some vehicles that were not 25 years old. But are now.

 

your right; hey how come your new defender is no longer in your signature? ohhh