abandoned festiva

[93 FordFestiva93]

ok, so today i was about 45 mins from my house, out in some weird town. i found a 89 festiva LX 5 spd tranny, power mirrors, headrest seats, tilt, split rear seat.... all of the works. its parked at an abandoned house with boarded up windows and doors, 4 of the windows on the car are smashed and its filled with quite a bit of snow. its has very old PA plates on it, isnt there somthing i can do to leagally take this car?

[GenevaDirt]

owner of the house has to be on record with city...contact them....or have the last owner of the vehicle looked up at the dmv...or
pull up with a trailer or hire a tow truck and drive away with it....they would probably thank you

[93 FordFestiva93]

i was going to grab the VIN number and house adress and go and look into finding the owner, all i have to do is drive back out there and find it again, its in the middle of nowhere. im not looking to drive it, i want alll the LX parts, tranny, seats, mirrors and center counsole. so obviously i dont need a title. i do not want to just take the car, GTA is a charge i am not trying to get.

[GenevaDirt]

lol...if it is abandoned....then you are not taking it from anyone...you are helping the city out by removing it. Figured you just wanted the parts....I would be making that drive if I were you before the city beats you to it.

[88festiva1.3l]

it its an 88 lx grab me some parts i'll pay u

[todd00]

id probably contact the county tax assessors office. they would have a record of the owners of the property. if you grab the vin or the tag, you might contact the county/city law enforcement. maybe they will run it for you, or have some infor on the owner.

if you go back there, stop and ask a neighbor, that would prob be my first step.

[roycehof]

Yep, Knock on a neighbors door first. They may have all the info you need. Perhaps soembody has passed and no heirs care enough (or are far away)- I would just snag it and be done. If there is a path to talking to somebody, tell them you have the same car and need parts - I'll bet it is stiing because they can't locate a title. That happens all the time. Nobdoy want to deal with the Mote\or Vehicle department in PA because it is all voice prompts which leads you in circles (trust me ,I have been there after a tag got stolen - The PA MVA phone system is worthless!). They may thank you for helping them out. Just a note to be aware of - Most tow truck drivers will not tow without some sort of proof of ownership - A bill of sale will most likely calm their fears. Explain that you are buying it for parts and they may come and drag away the skeleton for free (For the scrap metal).
Best of Luck,
Royce

[SimonTuffGuy]

Royce - Even if you get someone at PennDot, you're probably better off with the phone system... HAHA...

[25Horseplay]

Just strip it where it sits!

[jglutz]

Finding the property owner...most counties...or at least here in PA have public record online..just a start.

[93 FordFestiva93]

the closest neighbor home is about a mile at least, im going out tomorrow to get the VIN and having a friend of mine who is a sherrif run it and get me the owners number, hopefully someone picks up and it isnt disconnected, cuz if it is im taking what i want where it sits.

[CharlieZ]

I had a similar experience 35 years ago with a Fiat 500. The 10 year old neighbor kid said he knew of a car that looked like the one I had. with his parent's permission we drove there and sure enough... deep in the brush behind an abandoned gas station there it was. I found the property owner thru the court house, called and was given the car. I applied for a title thru the DMV. It was necessary to post a cash bond and the new title was held in suspension for 1 year. Seems the amount of the bond was some percentage of the car's value. I can't remember what it was but knowing my financial situation then, it couldn't have been much. The owner of the Fiat had planned to use the 500cc 2 cylinder air cooled engine on a lawn mower! This was all in Illinois and like I said, ta least 35 years ago. My advice though is DO NOT strip the car where it sits without permission. Real life isn't Grand Theft Auto!