Theft Report Proves False, Towing Bill Is for Real : Case of False Car ID Costs $559

It took two years for Robert Tipp to repair the 1979 Mazda, two hours for the Department of Motor Vehicles to impound it, six weeks for him to prove that it was not a stolen car, and $559 in towing and impound fees to get it towed back to his Venice home.

Restoring old or wrecked cars is a hobby for the 59-year-old Tipp, a retired real estate broker. When a friend totaled her Mazda RX7 in a 1983 rear-end collision on the San Diego Freeway, Tipp paid her $800 for what was left of it and went to work.

He cut away the front of the frame and replaced it, spending about $600 on parts and uncounted hours of his own labor, he said. On Sept. 4, when the car was almost fit to drive again, Tipp went to the Culver City DMV office to register it in his name.

“There’s a problem here,” Tipp was told by a DMV employee. “We will have to impound your car.” A routine computer check of the car’s identification number turned up a report that the car was stolen. “I knew it wasn’t a stolen car,” Tipp said, “but what could I do?”

A short while later, two men from the DMV, a tow truck and three Los Angeles Police Department cars arrived at Tipp’s home.

The Mazda was towed to the well-locked lot of Goodman’s Culver City Tow Service and Tipp began efforts to retrieve it.

He said he called everyone he could think of, beginning with the insurance company that had paid off the former owner of the wrecked Mazda. He also called DMV investigators, Los Angeles Councilwoman Pat Russell, state Sen. Herschel Rosenthal (D-Los Angeles), Assemblywoman Gwen Moore (D-Los Angeles), the district attorney’s office and the Los Angeles Police Department, which had received the stolen car report. All were sympathetic, Tipp said, but said they did not know how to help him.

Last week, six weeks after his car was impounded, Tipp received two notices. One was from the DMV, telling him that the car had been cleared and that he could pick it up. The other was from the towing company, warning him that if he did not pick up the car by Nov. 7 it would be sold.

It turned out that it was not Tipp’s car that had been stolen, but another 1979 Mazda with a forged identification number that apparently had been cut from the dashboard of Tipp’s car after it was wrecked. He was free to pick up his car from the tow yard, after he paid $559 in towing and impound fees.

Police told The Times that they could not discuss the case because it is still under investigation, but said Tipp can file a request for a hearing to determine whether there was probable cause to impound the car.

Tipp is still unhappy about his situation. “It just doesn’t seem fair,” he said. “I didn’t do anything dishonest, they took my car away, and now I have to pay over $500 to get it back.”