Source: http://www.bigbirdskyline.com
A Wisconsin man by the name of Justin Beno was ordered by the state government to turn over his cars for crushing or face jailtime. A sting was organized to catch grey market vehicles (legal, but unofficial/unauthorized) as consequently, a Wisconsin Department of Transportation investigator found two postings by Justin Beno for the sale of his 1995 and 1996 Nissan Skyline GTR, in which one was an actual vehicle used in the Fast and Furious movie.
Source: http://www.bigbirdskyline.com
Eventually, the "buyer" asked Beno if the vehicles could be titled, as he replied that they could be titled in Florida and then re-titled back in Wisconsin, which alerted the authorities. Both of Beno's cars were seized and he was charged with one felony of having no VIN on his owned vehicles, two felony counts to commit fraud, as well as misdemeanors for the missing VINs.
The deputy district attorney of Brown County, Dana Johnson, made an offer to Beno to give up the two vehicles and accept the misdemeanor charges or face jailtime. Although, Beno made a counter-offer of paying all the fines and find buyers overseas for the vehicles, but eventually, it was declined...
The worst will happen, as the two beloved cars of Beno will be crushed and sold for scrap, as this just had to happen at this time. In a couple of years, the Skylines will be clear of emissions and federal safety standards as the vehicles would of turned past the 25 year mark, but will not happen...
Source: http://www.bigbirdskyline.com
Beno said that the two Skylines were bought only with their shells, as Beno worked for years trying to assemble them finding parts around the world. He said that he bought the vehicles without their VIN tags in which the seller mailed them to Beno. Beno also said that he was not aware that it was illegal to own a vehicle that did not have its VIN attached.
This article really has my jimmies rustled, why couldn't they just sell it to another buyer outside the country? They're wasting their time and taxpayer's money just to find and get rid of vehicles that don't follow "guidelines". The government should have much better things to do with their time and money that they have, they should have in my opinion just sold the cars out of the country, problem solved!
If you want to check out Beno's Skylines, you can see it on his website, here.
[Autoblog]
