STOLEN Stolen 40 in Denver (1 Viewer)

[timmbuck2]

Location

Loveland, Colorado United States

I found where the guy has it, but he is a junkyard/tow yard and claims he sent me certified mail but I didn't get it or sign anything. Details (LONG read) on rising sun

STOLEN: 1964/5 FJ40

Hey strangers, been awhile. Kristi has had some significant health issues so the last couple of years has been mainly taking care of her and working my ass off. :) Finally bought a new house with room for toys so I went to go pick up my 40 that a 'friend' had been storing, and it has been...

risingsun4x4club.org

Cops called again, trying to find a lawyer to send a letter, contacted the press...

 

[jaymar]

I found where the guy has it, but he is a junkyard/tow yard and claims he sent me certified mail but I didn't get it or sign anything. Details (LONG read) on rising sun

STOLEN: 1964/5 FJ40

Hey strangers, been awhile. Kristi has had some significant health issues so the last couple of years has been mainly taking care of her and working my ass off. :) Finally bought a new house with room for toys so I went to go pick up my 40 that a 'friend' had been storing, and it has been...

risingsun4x4club.org

Cops called again, trying to find a lawyer to send a letter, contacted the press...

Glad you found it at least. Link doesn't work unless you're signed in over there. Maybe copy and paste here?

 

[timmbuck2]

I'll try and copy some stuff here...we had to move the thread to the members only section.

They didn't respond to the demand letter and immediately moved the 40 somewhere else.

Anyone know a good litigation guy in Colorado?

 

[timmbuck2]

Asking to get the rising sun thread moved back to public, but I want to get a few details here so we can keep our eyes open for it while I go through the courts etc.

Long story, get yer

So first of all I had this 1964 FJ40 the first time about 15 or so years ago. Was my first real running driving 40, my oldest son who was 3 at the time named it Ocho Mater 40. One of the pics below was his first ever run, the Rising Sun 40's Only Run in 2008? Anyway, good times. Then bad times, divorce etc and I had to sell the 40. Sigh. Fast forward like 10 years and lo and behold (does anyone use that phrase anymore?) the 40 popped up on CL! I ran over there with cash and bought it back, so much sentimental value for my family. I kept it at a shop/yard I was renting to store all my crap. Several years ago when moving out of that yard, I paid a guy who was helping out around the yard to do some work to it. Basically trying to help a guy out who was down on his luck. He did a bunch of labor stuff for me and worked his butt off. So I paid him to do a few things to the 40. I got busy and didn't chat with him for several months. Life was insane with 2 huge work projects and a thriving side business and I assumed all was well. I finally got around to asking him when and where I could pick up the 40 and what was going on and this is where things get interesting. He (Tim also) said that he had been living on this guys junkyard/towyard doing work for him and he had 2 trucks there. My 40 and an old T100 with 450k miles that I gave to Tim for payment for doing a bunch of work for me, but he never put it in his name. Tim said the junkyard guy (Let's call him A$$) kicked him out, and stole all his tools, clothes, all his belongings etc, and that included MY TRUCK(s). OK, that really sucks. Tim apparently took him to small claims court but don't think much happened with that. ANYWAY. I still had the title so started looking for my 40. The Rising Sun guys are amazing! I had guys going to this junkyard to look for the 40, one guy was gonna get his drone out to fly over and look for it. Amazing. Then within *hours* someone posted that they had seen it at a shop up in the northern suburbs here in Denver. I had reported the 40 stolen already, so I grabbed the title and a trailer and called the local police up there and went to go get my 40 back! Several Rising Sun guys showed up also. Did I mention that Rising Sun rocks? Anyway, we get there and yup that's my 40. Very distinctive rust and it has a Chevy straight 6 so pretty easy to identify and the vin matched. But hold up, the A$$ claims to the cops that he didn't have the title but he had 'repossessed' it or something and had sent all the legal letters out to the previous owner. (I received NOTHING from him on the 40, and of course I didn't sign ANYTHING. If I had received a letter like that I would have been there in 15 minutes!!) So the police decided there needed to be some 'investigation' so they towed it to the impound lot and the original detective took a few weeks to decide that since this A$$ 'says' he sent the letter (that I never received nor signed for) that it was now a civil matter and I would need to take him to court, and they released the 40 back to his A$$. I was super swamped and life was challenging, and the couple of lawyers I reached out to were going to be probably more expensive than what I paid for the damn thing. I probably didn't do enough litigation research, there are ways to do it myself, but I let it drop.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago! A rising sun member was driving around in a different northern suburb, saw this cool old early 40 sitting out in front of yet another crappy unregistered dirtbag junkyard. He had no idea about the 40, so he took pics then posted on the rising sun forum that it was available, the A$$ said he was getting it running so he could sell it. Immediately obvious it was my truck, so I started looking at my options. Apparently he did get the title moved to his name, my original title in my name is no longer valid, but he obtained the title fraudulently. I again decided to go the high road and had a lawyer buddy throw together a demand letter basically saying you got the title illegally, give the truck back to Tim and all will be forgiven. (Hell I would have paid him a little for storing it, etc etc) Also reminded him that trying to sell it would be pretty illegal and a bad idea. Within hours of receiving the letter, the A$$ moved the truck to parts unknown. And never responded to the lawyer. (WHY didn't I sneak an airtag on there before I sent the letter!?!?) If he really did everything legally to get the title, why didn't he just respond to the lawyer with all his proof? He just crawled back under the rock he and his inbred dirtbag inlaws to whatever fly by night illegal towyard they are running now. (it looks like they were kicked out of the last 2 or 3 places they had and they have no valid business licenses in Colorado.)

So that is where I stand today. I need to get a lawyer to take him to small claims court or ?? or I need to do it myself. The monetary value is low, I think I only paid like $5k for it, he told someone he was gonna ask $14k for it! So not sure what to value it as small claims has a limit. However the personal and sentimental value is off the charts for me and my boys, who are now 15 and 18, the little guy in those pics is now a freshman in college at CU-Boulder. I am not giving up!!! Ocho Mater 40 will be back in my stable at some point...

Any advice or help, please DM me here or on Rising Sun. Please keep an eye out for this! Very distinctive rust spots, the chevy engine, and the VIN tag is unique also.

Thanks for reading all this, or no worries if you didn't.


TLR - dude stole my 40, claims it is his now, but never sent me the legal documents. Now he is in hiding, AGAIN.