40+ Imported Defenders seized by Homeland Security Today (developing story)
- Thread starter proper4wd
- Start date
Red90
Adventurer
That is not really a correct explanation.... 6 were returned earlier as previously discussed. They have cancelled the warrant on 8 trucks that were never seized as they were not able to locate those trucks for seizure.
4Rescue
Expedition Leader
I read that on that other Site's thread and I think that is really cool of him... Sounds like a stand-up guy. The ramifications of his voluntary work may well effect us all, LR owners or not, if we weer to import a "rare or unique" vehicle" and I think that's one of the more overlooked and pretty amazing parts about what he's done here.
Also really stoked to hear at least some folks will be getting their trucks back. I've tried to make sense of all this/read through it all since it was reported, and my head is still spinning. What a crazy story.
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I'm not sure if this article was covered. The above referenced individual(by Rovertrader) representing some of the Defender owners was successful and several have been returned so far.
Feds didn't bother to decode the entire vin to get the warrant for the vehicles they were seizing, but rather just the last 6 check-digits.....which is why they thought the one from 1983 was a 2000.
Written last week(2 sep 2014):
http://www.lro.com/news-reviews/2014/8/us-returns-seized-defenders/
Good for the owners.
Feds didn't bother to decode the entire vin to get the warrant for the vehicles they were seizing, but rather just the last 6 check-digits.....which is why they thought the one from 1983 was a 2000.
Written last week(2 sep 2014):
http://www.lro.com/news-reviews/2014/8/us-returns-seized-defenders/
Good for the owners.
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Red90
Adventurer
Feds didn't bother to decode the entire vin to get the warrant for the vehicles they were seizing, but rather just the last 6 check-digits.....which is why they thought the one from 1983 was a 2000.
It is actually Land Rover that decoded the VINs incorrectly. Land Rover provided the build dates to the government.
Good to know. Makes sense as I think about it, actually. They may not have been able to decode the VIN themselves on import units due to different VIN coding.
Regardless, there were legit ones rolled up in this mess and they are getting their way back to their owners, which is good.
calicamper
Expedition Leader
Its called time. And it takes time for the Gov agency to catch up with those who have knowingly imported illegal vehicles. You can't bring non US spec cars into the US without knowing that your breaking the law. I bet the recent listings on Craigs list was due to the pending Defender Round up taking place. LOL
By the way our current laws regarding non US spec vehicles were put in place after the German Car Makers threw a hissy fit in the very early 80's claiming their US sales investement was under threat of failure because of importers importing German cars from outside the US. Our laws today around this topic is directly due to pressure put on our politicians by the German Auto Makers! No Joke! By the way they wanted 100% ban on all imported non US spec cars! I recall several politicians thought that was a bit over kill and pushed the 25yr age limit.
It's certainly likely that at least some of the vehicles were brought over illegally and that some of the current owners knew exactly what they were getting. But it's also likely that at least some of them were brought over legally and/or some or most of the current owners had no idea that anything was amiss with the vehicle they bought. If some or all of the vehicles were brought here illegally, I'd rather see the Feds spending their energy (and our tax dollars) going after the guy who was bringing them over here and selling them rather than the current owners. And it just seemed wrong to essentially send an army to take the vehicles away from the owners when the seizures could have been done a lot more discretely and at less cost to the taxpayers.
And unless it's the NFL
, there is the concept of innocent until proven guilty that seems to have been bypassed in this whole process.fog cutter
Adventurer
from Hemmings post today: http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/...and-rover-defenders-to-u-s-buyers/?refer=news
