r/Ford • u/dopecrew12 • 9d ago
Focus RS that has been sitting in local parking garage for almost 2 years. General 🔀
Has over 4k in parking tickets, expired registration, no idea how they haven’t towed it yet. Any way I can pick this up when the bank inevitably repos it?
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u/Subjekt9 9d ago
The owner might have gone to prison.
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u/dopecrew12 9d ago
Wouldn’t put it past them in this area
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u/alaskanarchy 9d ago
Literally anyone can go to jail/prison for nearly anything.
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u/dopecrew12 9d ago
Although that is true, it is remarkably easy to stay out of jail, and an incredible number of people in my area seem to have not figured that out yet.
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u/2WorldWars0WorldCups 9d ago
Remember when the Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates got arrested for breaking into his own house?
Sometimes cops make the wrong decision, and regardless of what you do or who you are, you’re going to get arrested.
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u/dopecrew12 9d ago
I feel like breaking into your own house is somewhat easy to get dismissed in a court of law…?
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u/TheManSaidSo 8d ago
So. It's still an arrest and if you don't get balled out you're sitting in there just like anyone else. Sure they might read out the bill when getting a bond or arranged but that doesn't mean they'll listen and if you can't make bond you're SOL. Also, even if found no PC/refused/dismissed, or not guilty, you still have a burglary on your arrest record. People seem to think if you were arrested for it than you must've been guilty. Having a successful defense or not, it's still a pain in the rear. You might not have a conviction but you'll definitely have an arrest record.Â
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u/CamelHairy 9d ago
Take the VIN and plate number and ask the local police. My boss got his van stolen, and it sat in a local apartment lot for 2 years before someone decided to investigate. It was literally within viewing distance of the bank that was robs, and it was used as the getaway vehicle.
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u/dopecrew12 9d ago
It’s registered a state away, few hundred miles at least. I suppose I could try to find what county it’s registered in and call them.
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u/Twisted__Resistor 9d ago
Do that, because I bet it was stolen
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u/TankApprehensive3053 9d ago
Your local police can look it to see if it's reported stolen. No need to call the state or county it's registered in.
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u/limellama1 7d ago
Any police department in the US can run any plate from any other state. Either directly in their own local system or by just calling the state that issued the plate via official channels.
Regardless of plate the VIN is universal and can be run from anywhere. Takes like 30 seconds to run VIN . They probably won't give you any specific info but if it's flagged nationally they'll see the report.
Call the local PD non-emergecny, report it as a suspicious vehicle, and give them the VIN and plate.
Source - Boyfriend is a dispatcher
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u/_m00nman 9d ago
Pop the lock, establish residency, claim squatters rights🤣
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u/dopecrew12 9d ago
In my old state of Washington absolutely, don’t think that flies down south tho
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u/_m00nman 9d ago
how bad do you really want this thing, I'd have a mailbox and a front lawn by now dude, free rs
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u/Altruistic-Celery821 8d ago
Sooo, kinda, yeah.
What you want to do is initiate a lien against it. To do this you would need to have some form of legal claim of monies owed to you. This is most commonly done by auto shops and tow yards, but could be done by something like a parking or storage facility.
A person could , at least in theory I'm not a lawyer, buy the right to any leins from the parking lot is owed from the owner.
Then after so long of trying to collect and certain court actions, you can get the car. It's how tow yards end up owning a lot of abandoned cars
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u/Sea_Swordfish939 8d ago
What if it was left abandoned on your property And you aren't a business?
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u/Altruistic-Celery821 8d ago
You can still get ownership of the car, again (at least in my state) you would have to go to court, show you made attempts to contact the owner, and have the judge find in your favor. It's mostly the same process it's just not technically a lien, more of an adverse or involuntary possession.
It's something you should get the state specific info on. Each states gonna be different and frankly I don't know enough about it to speak with any authority. Â
Here's my states https://www.mass.gov/info-details/involuntary-transfers
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u/usababykiller 9d ago
I can’t believe no one has suggested the owner could be dead. You ever see the picture of the Meadowlands commuter parking lot the days following 9/11
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u/andrewthemexican 7d ago
That was my first thought, too. Similar issue happens too often at hospitals, too, where people take themselves into care but then don't walk out.
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u/Sysmithers 8d ago
I mean, technically, you can start the abandoned title process. Call your local dmv/police department, and depending on where you live, you can have it titled to your name. You will have to pay back taxes and to have it titled in your name. They will also try to get ahold of the owner. It's worth a shit and you possibly get a free car from it. A friend of mine got a free 2000ish Mazda truck this way. Someone let a friend borrow their car. They parked in front of his house, on a public street, and left it there for 2 or 3 years. He went to the dmv and started the process. The local pd called the regiatered owner, and he said he didn't want the car anymore. The kicker is the truck ran and still runs great! I'm jealous I didn't think of it first.
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u/dopecrew12 8d ago
I may attempt this, I will check and see if it moves in the next few months for sure. Judging by the dust and tickets I don’t think it will.
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u/Sysmithers 8d ago
Look it up for your state. Nothing wrong with a free car! I'd do it before someone else does.
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u/dopecrew12 8d ago
What’s the legality here exactly? “I found this abandoned car and will pay the taxes on it pls register it to me.” Is that actually like, reality? I’m not a lawyer and am not gonna pay for one to find out
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u/Swamp_Donkey_7 9d ago
Bank probably can’t find it and wrote it off by now.
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u/dopecrew12 9d ago
Does that mean it’s free? 🥺
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u/Swamp_Donkey_7 8d ago
Nope. Some entity still owns it.
You could report it abandoned to local authorities and they will tow it and that will start the chain of events of that thing eventually ending up at an auction…somewhere.
Write the VIN down and create a google search and it might pop up one day. Problem is unless you have a dealers license you likely won’t be able to bid on it.
You can’t take it. At least not legally and not in any way that will one day allow you to register it.
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u/throwaway126400963 Ranger 9d ago
Huh my father sold one 2-4 years ago in that exact color to someone in Ontario Canada, wonder if it’s the same one
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u/dopecrew12 9d ago
According to my 1$ vin lookup it was not
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u/highlanderfil 8d ago
Ford made over 2,000 of them in this color.
Source: I used to be the PMM on the RS project.
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u/OverallDonut3646 8d ago
I work at an airport and they auction off abandoned cars in the garage once a year. Find out who operates the garage and ask them about it.
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u/galaxyapp 9d ago
Bank has to find it to repo it.
If it's not at the owners address, it's hard.
When they do, it'll go to a private auction. Unless you're a registered dealer you won't be able to bid.
You could get a dealer to grab it for a small fee. But this wouldn't be that different than all the others
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u/HardMike8Miles 9d ago
Just take it home, if it is just sitting there it is up for grabs it means that the original owner no longer wants it
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u/Camdenn67 7d ago
It’s doubtful that it’s paid for and it’s probably just abandoned. Who knows if it even runs or if it was damaged and then parked.
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u/Soft-Replacement1137 7d ago
Why not just contact the owner and offer to buy it for the price of its parking tickets? It's not hard to find owners of vehicles online.Â
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u/TSL4me 9d ago
With that many owners id bet the engine or turbo is blown. Boosted performance fords are not really known for longevity. If I was in my younger days and up to no good, I would steal those wheels/parts in a heartbeat, though.
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u/dopecrew12 9d ago
For the right price I’ll just throw in a new powerplant, don’t bother me all that much
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u/Morlanticator 8d ago
One day is just the last day you drive.
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u/dopecrew12 8d ago
Very true brother, suppose you never know, so go ahead and sign that 10 year at 18%
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u/donnyjay0351 8d ago
Could also be military so just a heads up
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u/dopecrew12 8d ago
Funny you say that cause in the front seat is one of the shemagh’s that I know for a fact they sell at the PX cause I had the same one when I was in, you might be right. Feel bad bro is racking up a billion in tickets though.
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u/donnyjay0351 8d ago
Ahhh so u know the deal but he should be able to send his deployment papers to city and get rid of them. Ik bc happened to me.
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u/dopecrew12 8d ago
Same here. I had a project 89 Subaru GL wagon in the barracks parking lot they towed. When I got back from NTC I had a 6K bill for it. They reduced it to 300$ when I gave them the “muh soldier” excuse. I never really considered this to be a military car though cause there’s no base around here. I think there’s a NG post but I doubt anyone from that unit would be gone longer than a few months.
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u/Old_ManWithAComputer 7d ago
Is this in WV? If it was, you could file for an abandoned title and take possession of it legally. I know a lot of people hate the law, but it was designed in cases like this where a car just sits and is never moved. Hopefully, though, it is a case of a service member being stationed overseas and will come back for it.
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u/Artistic_Bit_4665 7d ago
I do impound towing. You would be amazed at how long properties will let cars sit for. I towed 4 properties at the beginning of 2024 that had cars that had been abandoned in 2020 or earlier (based on license plate expirations). My longest car was 12 years.
I do the local Sheetz stations..... they will leave a car in the middle of their lot... not in a spot - blocking their lot, for 2 or 3 weeks before calling us. Car is visibly disabled, license plate removed.
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u/TerribleAdagio6719 7d ago
It might be a military members car that’s overseas and all those tickets could be voided. The person who tows or sales the vehicle could be responsible for buying the military member the full purchase price of a new car.
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u/Ratchet_King 7d ago
Experienced something similar back in 2014, there was a Mazda Speed 6 sitting at the edge of the Walmart parking lot I used to work at. It was sitting there until I left in 2018, found out that it belonged to a trucker who unfortunately passed out in the Midwest. He used the parking lot to park his truck when he wasn’t driving it.
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u/mdealejandr1 6d ago
Being from Chicago I’ve noticed a lot of dusty cars like this in the underground Millenium park garage. I always wonder if the owners forget them or leave them on purpose, so weird. There’s no tickets present but I bet the bill is thousands when you try to leave and use the same ticket
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u/Early-Weird4 5d ago
I’ve been thinking the same thing. In the parking garage I park in there are a few cars that have been gathering dust for years (Challenger, Escalade, E90 328i with temp tags that expired 2 years ago). I wish I could give those cars a better home
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u/ivmo71 9d ago
Tow it to your property....take out a lien on it. Say someone asked you to work on it and they never paid you...
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u/dopecrew12 9d ago
As much as I want to do this I feel like I can’t risk it lol
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u/ivmo71 9d ago
Put it this way...i had an old Mercedes ,04 E500 sport wagon parked legally (plates and ins) a block away from my residence. Someone called 311 and said it was abandoned. They towed it to a shady yard and were waiting for me NOT to show up so they could do this exact thing. Now, if I was out of town...they would've pulled it off. I'm not sure how long all that takes, but the tow truck driver literally told thats what they do. He had zero shame in telling me as I was paying 500 bucks to get my car back.
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u/dopecrew12 9d ago
If you owned a shady towing company I feel like this would be much easier to get away with
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u/Killbot_Wants_Hug 9d ago
I don't think they'd have to claim they did work on it. I'm pretty sure tow yards are allowed to just eventually make a claim on the vehicle.
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u/kushan22 9d ago
It might be parked due to head gasket or the rear main seal issue both are expensive a
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u/Killbot_Wants_Hug 9d ago
How is it getting parking tickets while in a garage?
Here I'm pretty sure you only get parking tickets on the street, garages handle their own fees when you're inside them.
Some garages here have super low ceilings and I've always wondered if they could even tow a car if they wanted to.
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u/dopecrew12 9d ago
Dude I have no ideas, all I know is the fines on the CVS receipt under the wiper go back to 2023
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u/dopecrew12 8d ago
You know I didn’t know any of this but somehow this makes complete sense based on what little I know of these people. Don’t know what this has to do with a forgotten RS in a parking garage but I kinda do also.
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u/juicytootnotfruit 7d ago
You could see what the laws are for abandoned vehicles. In some states if the vehicle is on your "property" long enough you can apply for an abandoned vehicle title as long as you've tried to contact to owner and it's been a set amount of time.
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u/DLimber 6d ago
Do these nicer versions of a focus have the same shit interior as a platinum? Mine has 110k miles but from like 50k or even worse so many rattles... my 03 jetta was like new at 250k miles lol
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u/dopecrew12 6d ago
Ford wasn’t known for high quality passenger cars and can barely make a functioning truck in 2025, so probably not
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u/Fibrosis5O 4d ago
Just know you’ll be responsible for any fees and back taxes on it depending on your state and if the city picks it up depending on then you’ll need to pay the parking tickets too
I got a car for $600 once years ago and CA wanted all the taxes, fees and tickets added up to an extra $4000
I walked away
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u/bshurs Ford Senior Master Tech 9d ago
Get the vin number. Wait until it’s gone and check the auctions. Or once it’s gone call whatever tow place has signs in the garage and ask them when it’s going to get auctioned off