Just to clarify, the document on the Chevy that’s still on the property, is it a Bill Of Sale or a Title?
In some states the Bill of Sale is actually part of the Title (Taxman gotta get their share), which may make reclaiming the car a lot easier.
here’s my recommendation . . .
Since you seem to know the current property land owner, contact them.
Write them an old-fashioned letter . . . the kind that the post office delivers
Explain that you’re the grandson of a previous owner
Do NOT discuss any legalities . . . as you have no leg to stand on, so to speak
Say that you’d be interested in buying those vehicles, if they still exist
Do NOT mention any price, because you know next to nothing. You don’t know if the vehicles still exist, what shape they may be in, etc.
If you go storming in there with lawyers, I can almost guarantee it’ll get ugly, and you’ll get no satisfaction, anyways
If he doesn’t respond to your letter, just let it go
No offense . . . you waited WAY too long
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It doesn’t hurt to try and get them back even if they cost you a bit. Those mid 60s Chevy trucks are pretty desirable.
A farmer who lives about 30 miles SE of me as the crow flies started collecting those about 35 years ago and lining them up on the highway by his farmhouse. He had a big “Not For Sale” sign posted and would not sell a thing. He had probably 70 or 80 of those things.
About 10 years ago he decided to start unloading them and they went quickly. I was by there back in November and he’s down to about 10 now so a lot of people were snatching them up.
At least the Dart has one redeeming feature; the 318.
I agree to an extent, but the reason I waited in the first place as I said was the land was supposed to go to me. We didn’t know if this lady getting POA in the first place and my step-grandmother was more than willing and supposedly cooperative for the land to go to me. My dad even spoke with her after all this happened and she was upset because she still stuck to that fact that the land was supposed to go to me. I do agree that ai should have swapped the title to me from the get-go, but didn’t see the way. For one, I was told by some people that “knew what they were doing” (which is really sad now because they didn’t) that you could not title a car unless it was roadworthy. I believe what they meant was you couldn’t register a vehicle unless it was road worthy. Either way, the man that bought the land is a preacher. He is friends with my grandfather, and my father, and knows me as well. He is also aware of the situation, or most of it anyways. If nothing else I just want to take the '63 Chevy to my property and find the truck that belongs to my dad. If he has the other vehicles and doesn’t mind me picking those up, great, if they were scrapped instead, it’s simply unfortunate and nothing I can do about it.
As far as the lady goes, I have enough info on her to contact an investigator and relay the info to them and hope that they can see that justice is carried out.
At this point, it’s about justice and making sure it is known what she did, and made sure she isn’t rewarded for doing what she knows was wrong to begin with, and for her dishonoring my family, pretending to be a friend when she was nothing but a wolf in sheep’s clothing I hope she is fully punished to the fullest extent of the law.
Also, yes, even though she is my step-grandmother, the only way the law here in Florida ties you to her estate by inheritance is if she were to have adopted my dad making her my dad’s adopted mother, and I her adopted grandson, which did not happen. She had no other relatives to my information, so I believe it would have went to the state. I would have rather it went to the state than for this lady to benefit from it, or to see one dollar from it. The fact these things happening are commonplace and it’s apparently so easy to get away with is just sickening.
Just look at all the informative and valuable replies botard89 received on this thread.
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I nominate this as the best and most sensible reply.
You’re going to spend money
You’ll make enemies
It’ll get ugly
And you’ll in all likelihood get no satisfaction out of it
And the worst part . . . it’s highly likely that not a darn thing will happen to “the lady”
You’re talking vengeance
it won’t end well
If you go around trying to destroy her reputation, she might just hire her own lawyer and/or investigators and you might wind up being on the receiving end
Almost 0% chance of that happening, in my opinion
Just send that letter, inquire about the cars, and if they still exist, tell the current owner you would like to buy them
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I have no intentions on going around and ruining her reputation. There wouldn’t be any need for that. You might think it is vengeance, but it is indeed justice. I’m not doing this for what could have been mine. I am doing this because of what she did to my grandmother. I want to make this fair and right, and you most certainly don’t do this by letting someone run off with your stuff. My step-grandmother is in no condition to do that, if she is even still alive. I, on the other hand, can. I plan on handling all of it nonetheless and once I figure things out I will post back here or update if it’s even worth doing that. Thank you to all that had some input. After all, I was never looking for legal advice. I could have sought that in many more places. I appreciate the input, perspectives, and thoughts on the matter.
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strait jacket: it’s tight, narrow, not linear.
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If there was something criminal going on why didn’t your father take action? Are you relying on facts or family gossip?
After my father passed away my stepmother gave his 2 year old diesel truck to her son to “take care of it”, 15 years later and I don’t know who is taking care of his truck, not his son.
My fathers retirement funds were squandered by my stepmother and her 3 delinquent sons, none of my business but it does leave a scar. Best thing to do is to put it behind me, I can earn my own wealth.
Anything the lady did is in no danger of prosecution because of the statute of limitations.
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The only thing my father did was discuss a few things with her. The lady snuck around for the lack of a better way of putting it and it got found out what was going on. She approached my dad trying to make peace, which needless to say did not work. A majority of this is by piecing things together from Public Records, and there was an investigation done on my step-grandmother health when the land was sold and she was deemed mentally incompetent at the time the POA sold the land to herself. Sadly, I don’t think law enforcement made that connection. My mom, before she passed, was talking with some investigators who wanted to speak with me about it. She was going to give me the number to contact them, but passed before she could. I figured I could just call up there and speak to the current investigator. Either way, like I said before, that’s a whole other ball game. I’m more focused on what I can do with the vehicles, if anything. I couldn’t agree with you more though about earning your own wealth. I can surely do that. I no longer have viewed any of this as what could have been mine, or what supposed to be. Fact is that it isn’t and nothing can be done about that. No use crying over spilt milk. What I aim to do is just make sure that the lady who did this doesn’t get to just walk away from this with all this money and land to do whatever she wants with it. She faked a lot of things and so far has got away with a lot, as well as mistreated my step-grandmother. I think karma has a way of dealing with those types of people for sure.
+1
Ergo, a waste of the OP’s time to try to pursue “justice” at this point.
It sure sounds like it
This is what you said
You don’t even know if she is still alive . . . ?!
This proves what we’ve been saying all along . . .
You don’t even have all the facts, yet you want to go out on a vendetta against this person who may or may not have taken advantage of your step-grandmother
You are far too removed from things to be in a position to be talking about some stranger doing things that you feel were improper. You’re in no position to prove anything
You’re only in a position to lose your money and make enemies
As for those cars, contact the current property owner . . . the pastor, I believe you said . . . and express an interest in buying those vehicles, if they still exist
you’re not even a direct heir, as you’re the grandson . . . step-grandson, if you want to refer to your grandfather’s wife
you have no standing
I might add another point . . . you said the property was sold for $40K. No offense, but that’s not enough money to pique anybody’s interest, in my opinion
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OK db, time to back off on the caffeine …
Much of what you’re saying is correct & right on point. Proving legal facts in situations like this is extremely difficult, extremely expensive, very unlikely to yield a financially positive result and contacting the current property holder on a person to person level is the approach likely to yield the best result.
On the other hand, situations like this involving abuse of fiduciary duty and elder abuse are unfortunately far from uncommon and the OP’s current state of mind is certainly understandable and frankly better than most.
For the OP, it seems like your primary interest is in the old Chevy so give it you’re best shot and even consider offering the current holder a few bucks to “save him the towing and to get rid of this junker from your property”. Bearing in mind that that a good Elder Law attorney costs about $400/hour, moves at the speed of molasses and you’ll probably be in for $20,000 initially and $50,000 preparation before you even start trial, which would buy a real nice new pickup.
But most important no matter how it turns out, accept that it’s just an “old truck” and thirty years experience has taught me that “There’s a rough justice in this world and that Karma’s a bitch” and you can count on it.
For the rest of you car guys and anyone else who understands that “none of us is getting outa here alive”, it’s a message that you need to do some simple and inexpensive things now if you don’t want everything to go to the nursing home, the tax guys or even worse, “Dear God, don’t let my wife sell my car for what I told her I spent on it!” .
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I had one cup of coffee the last time I made any comments in this discussion
Not sure what you’re getting at . . .
I hope you don’t think comments that you’re not in full agreement with were created because the guy writing them was wired on caffeine
For that matter, I noticed that quite a few regulars “liked” my comments, so it appears I wasn’t out of line
you get your share of “likes” as well . . .
so maybe forget it . . . especially when we consider that you actually agreed with much of what I said
Personally, I hope the next time we hear from @botard89 he says that he’s sent that letter to the current property owner and is awaiting a response
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To me it just meant that maybe you were being a little hard on the guy, realizing none of us know the whole circumstances.
As far as “likes” go, I kinda discount that. A guy can call someone else a profane name and gets 5 or more anonymous likes? Again realizing that none of us here know anything about anyone else here except for some of the pre-historic ones before 2007. Everyone just “assumes” they know and into the pigeon hole they go. See I always thought you were from Mississippi.
The likes are not anonymous , all you do is click on the number beside the like symbol and it shows who liked the post.
I’m just calling it as I see it
I’d hate to see the guy waste thousands of dollars, make enemies, and have nothing to show for his troubles at the end of the saga
This coming from a guy who has given and received plenty of them 
I’ve never been there
Seem to recall hearing there’s good music in the area 
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