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Oregon woman's 13-year stolen car odyssey uncovers deceit, purged records and state DMV gaps
Hat tip, Jalopnik. The car shown in the tweet is not the one that was stolen and recovered.
Oregon Woman's 13-Year Quest to Recover Her Stolen Chevy Nova SS Is Finally Over http://dlvr.it/SnrBWh
Link to tweet
PUBLIC SAFETY
Oregon woman’s 13-year stolen car odyssey uncovers deceit, purged records and state DMV gaps
Updated: May. 10, 2023, 11:45 p.m.|Published: May. 10, 2023, 5:00 a.m.
Cristin Elliott is seated back behind the wheel of her cherished 1971 Chevy Nova. She was recently reunited with the car after it was stolen in November 2010.Dave Killen / The Oregonian
By Maxine Bernstein | The Oregonian/OregonLive
Thirteen years after someone stole her sleek black Chevy Nova SS with red vinyl seats, Cristin Elliott got the car back. ... With tears in her eyes, she sat behind the wheel for the first time since September 2010, when she’d parked it outside a friend’s house. ... The motor wouldn’t start when she turned the key. Someone had painted the seats black. The interior chrome molding was missing. Layers of dust coated everything.
No matter. Elliott’s odyssey was over.
Just an hour earlier, she won her case in a Multnomah County courtroom. Her quest unraveled a chain of dishonesty, deception and perhaps even some deliberate ignorance in a state that ranks fifth in the U.S. for car thefts – with 471 thefts per 100,000 people.
It would expose a flaw in Oregon’s DMV system, which relies on state and federal law enforcement databases that purge records of stolen cars after a few years. It would catch a slipup by local cops in not renewing the stolen car report and a lax DMV documentation system.
{snip}
-- Maxine Bernstein
Email mbernstein@oregonian.com; 503-221-8212
Follow on Twitter @maxoregonian
[Our journalism needs your support. Please become a subscriber today at OregonLive.com/subscribe
Oregon woman’s 13-year stolen car odyssey uncovers deceit, purged records and state DMV gaps
Updated: May. 10, 2023, 11:45 p.m.|Published: May. 10, 2023, 5:00 a.m.
Cristin Elliott is seated back behind the wheel of her cherished 1971 Chevy Nova. She was recently reunited with the car after it was stolen in November 2010.Dave Killen / The Oregonian
By Maxine Bernstein | The Oregonian/OregonLive
Thirteen years after someone stole her sleek black Chevy Nova SS with red vinyl seats, Cristin Elliott got the car back. ... With tears in her eyes, she sat behind the wheel for the first time since September 2010, when she’d parked it outside a friend’s house. ... The motor wouldn’t start when she turned the key. Someone had painted the seats black. The interior chrome molding was missing. Layers of dust coated everything.
No matter. Elliott’s odyssey was over.
Just an hour earlier, she won her case in a Multnomah County courtroom. Her quest unraveled a chain of dishonesty, deception and perhaps even some deliberate ignorance in a state that ranks fifth in the U.S. for car thefts – with 471 thefts per 100,000 people.
It would expose a flaw in Oregon’s DMV system, which relies on state and federal law enforcement databases that purge records of stolen cars after a few years. It would catch a slipup by local cops in not renewing the stolen car report and a lax DMV documentation system.
{snip}
-- Maxine Bernstein
Email mbernstein@oregonian.com; 503-221-8212
Follow on Twitter @maxoregonian
[Our journalism needs your support. Please become a subscriber today at OregonLive.com/subscribe