A man from Hurst is suing after a Fort Worth municipal judge ordered his impounded truck returned to the car lot where — unbeknownst to him — it had been stolen a few years before.
According to FOX 4 News, Blake Headley of Hurst paid the owner of a Ford F250 truck $7,500 in cash. He also spent another $2,500 in upgrades for the vehicle, which he bought to use for his fencing business.
Over a year after the purchase, a police officer pulled Headley over, told him the truck was stolen, and impounded the vehicle.
It turns out, in 2018, before Headley bought the truck, someone had taken it for a test drive from a used car lot and never brought it back. The car lot reported the vehicle missing — but not “stolen.”
Haltom City Police recovered and impounded the truck two days after it was taken from the car lot. However, because it had not been put into Fort Worth PD’s database as a stolen vehicle, it went unclaimed, sitting impounded at AA Wrecker Service.
The status of the truck was not updated to “stolen” in the system until five months later, even though it had already been located by that point.
According to Lisa Truitt at AA Wrecker Service, the used car dealership had also never registered its ownership interest, so the wrecker service had no way of knowing who to contact to claim the vehicle.
When no one came to get the truck after 90 days, it was sold at auction. Per Texas law, an auction overwrites pre-existing titles or liens, meaning the new owner, Don Denman, got a clean title for the vehicle. It was Denman who later sold the truck to Headley.
Now, a judge has ordered the truck be returned to the used car lot from which it was originally stolen. Headley is appealing the decision.
According to FOX 4 News, if Headley wins the appeal, he will be awarded the truck’s fair market value. If he does not, there will likely be no law-related recompense available to him.
However, Denman said he would refund Headley the $7,500 he paid for the truck if Headley loses the appeal.
The Fort Worth Police Department has now reportedly changed its policy to require that all vehicles be entered into the database the same day they are reported missing or stolen.
