Glad you're pursing the stolen truck more. I know it's not about the money, it's the principal. Hope you get to the bottom of it soon.

After over 40 years of owning a wrecking yard I'll give you my best guess on how the tow company got your truck. If they didn't actually steal it when they towed it from wherever they picked it up there will be a police report written of the recovery or impound...have you seen the report? If the truck was towed legally they most likely decided to keep it and run a lien sale on it. Have you seen any lien sale papers or even more important where is the proof of service that would prove they did it legal like and served you. Talk to the worst enemy of any yard....DMV investigative service. They will check for you and make sure it was done right. I'll tell ya right now ..the tow service didn't do it right. Now go get your truck back.

Sorry to hear about the bs with the truck! Puts you in a pickle now that someone else "owns" it. The police department that auctioned it off needs to give that guy his 5k back and give you your truck back ..in a perfect world. Good luck 🤞

I would definitely give Steve lehto a call because it sounds like the sheriff's department or the local law enforcement there really dropped the ball on this one the truck should still be yours hes a lawyer that deals with this kind of stuff and hes right there near you

Subpoena the phone records of the police Dept to see if they actually made the call.

Time to get your lawyer involved now I would say it's not about the truck now it's doing the right thing and getting to the bottom of it

Here in Fl, once it sits for 30days, tow company had to mail a letter to listed address(registration) to inform that the vehicle is going to be auctioned for storage/tow fees. When it's auctioned, any money over what towing/storage fees are is supposed to be sent to previous owner. So if you see a truck that would easily sell for 10k get sold for $1500 tow/storage at their "auction" you can bet it's a screw job.

Follow the trail. It's the principal of the matter at this point. I would literally go out of my way to make sure I get it back. Legal or not. Someone dropped the ball and bureaucracy says there's more important things then someone truck. Keep up the hard work

Sounds like the Waterford Police did not refer to their own stolen vehicle report.

Time to get a lawyer involved to figure it all out and get the truck back.

I hope you continue to pursue the stuff with the truck. Something is definitely not on the level. I wonder how many other people have been through that who don't have the audience you have? On a different note the Durango is looking sick!

Welcome to modern law enforcement Tom. Big reality check when you realize they DO NOT CARE about the public.

PD dropped the ball. Just like you're saying about a investigation, even if they overlooked the Amazon packages by thinking it could have been stolen mail, they should have looked into that aspect of it.

I love how calm you are about this. But I get the sense that you're not letting this go until you get some answers.

The law wonders why many choose to handle situations themselves and not even bother reporting it. Majority of the time it seems like they dont even care one bit

Follow the money, get in touch with Steve Lehto. Even if you don't get it back, this will help others.

When the guy started with “state law says…” he was already in defense mode. I don’t believe it for a minute. He’s been stealing cars for a living, he knows what to say.

There's no outreach for out of state stolen vehicles? I guess if someone ever starts an interstate auto theft ring, the best place to base it is in Michigan.

My Dad was a Sargeant with the LA County Sheriff's Department from 53' to 72'. I could just hear him say about your truck....."Hmm, something stinks here". He would also say to me often, "your Dad's got a dirty mind...and I got a nose for sniffing out when somethings not right". And that he did. He later became a Senior Special Investigator, with the Department of Mental Health, investigating patient deaths and abuse allegations at State Hospitals. A more fair & just man I've never met in my 65 years on the planet. I do hope you get some answers to the questions about your truck, and that you're made whole (financially) at some point soon. ✌😎

I think there is more going on than the lazy police department. There is no way it sat at that apartment complex the entire time until getting picked up. Someone would have stolen the amazon packages for sure.

Follow the trail from the current buyer to anyone in the police department, not just officers but who handles the release of stolen vehicles. This is a gut feeling from how fast everything happened.

Tom, check into the auction. Who held the auction and who benefits from the proceeds to the auction. I work in automotive industry down here in Akron and know the procedure in Ohio in getting abandoned or unclaimed vehicles here. Most of the time tow or impound yards the vehicle has a lien holder to start with that they contact them letting them know the cars recovered and two things happen. One the finance company makes the decision to come pay any tow and storage bill on it and return to there customer depending if insurance company has paid off on the car or not. If paid it goes to a recovery auction or car port yard. Second option they can do is if the tow and storage bill is higher than there loan is too high they can just release the car to the tow yard or repair shop that has the car. That takes longer than 3 months. Now here's where here in Akron we had a problem we found was tow companies here that were doing police tows etc. would tow in a car and if they wanted to because of the value of the car what ever reason. They'd hide the car and say they did all that with no reply and would contact the DMV and put a mechanic lien on the car and Ohio would give them a title for the car to do what they want. Yeah it's a big known tow yard scam. I'm not saying that the tow company did anything . My bet is on whoever profited the most from the auction your truck sold at. Keep in mind they didn't even have it 90 days before putting it in an auction. Something here does not add up at all

I for one am so glad to see Bobby out and about feeling better. Mainly though it's because I don't want to see Bobby in a hospital gown again. 🤣🤣🤣🤣 Thanks for your content.

It's as if someone in your local police didn't do their due diligence and actually really check who owned it, when the vehicle was initially recovered!

It was interesting as I was watching Steve Morris’s video of him, rebuilding your sons engine when the notification popped up about this. Update after watching the video of Tom with the towing company and going through the timeline of everything. This whole situation is a rotten fish that stinks from the head down and out in every direction …it’s time to get a lawyer involved maybe get a hold of Steve Lehto he’s a Michigan car attorney. He does mainly lemon law stuff but he might be somebody that could shed a little bit of light into why certain things happen the way they did. Otherwise I’d start investigating the local law-enforcement as to why they didn’t do their job And to what ends,why they didn’t do their job.

That OBS F350 SuperDuty PowerStroke in the condition your pickup was in is worth quite a lot of money. I have a 97 F250 4WD SuperDuty PowerStroke and I'm seeing comparable pickups selling for upwards of $30k+. Theres a significant demand for these pre-smog / IH diesel builds. I would pursue this with some gusto.

This is actually really really simple. Someone at the sheriff's office wanted your truck

The gaps in the story are on the law enforcement side! They are supposed to serve and protect but they only served themselves! They were lazy and didn’t do their job and made a few bucks on the auction! I bet this has happened many times over and the Tom Bailey news team is about to uncover a scandal in the Waterford police department!! I would say your next stop should be the detective office that was in charge of this “investigation”

I said in the first video and I am saying it again. The police department found the truck and realized it was stolen rather then notify you they found it they sat on it in their impound yard until they could right it up as abandoned. Then they sent it to the auction. More then 50% of a department's yearly budget is from property seizures.

Glad to hear you're not giving up on the ol truck.

We need Rob Wolchek on the case. This is definitely some predatory system that deserves to be on the hall of shame. Frikin Watertucky.

Your law enforcement obviously needs to be sued for negligence. If not, It will keep on happening to others.

I would get your local news involved. Get this on the news. I mean seriously, Waterford police couldn't swing by and tell you, oh wait they probably picked up their clipboard after the truck was already recovered. SMH. Don't let this go! Also, you should make the wiper arm, the handle for the gate. Super cool!

I feel this all boils down to your local police department dropping the ball. I feel like some shady activity happened here.

cool. thanks for the update.

Pretty infuriating how efficient this situation is with the government. Everything else moves at the speed of cold molasses but selling a stolen vehicle is done clean in less than 90 days.

You guys need to keep fighting this. This is crazy. Hope it all comes back to you. But the way the law is probably not.

There is a national database for stolen vehicles. If that was checked the police department should have had a way to track down the owner or at least contact the police where it was reported stolen. You’d still have a tow charge and storage to pay but it beats losing the truck.

Saw all the stuff at Autorama last Friday! Looked awesome!!

Can you get your phone records? It sounds like the police didn't call at all and assumed it was just some regular guy that has no voice and just thought they would get away with it no questions asked. Keep going mate you deserve your truck back

It really sounds like someone didnt want you to get that truck back for whatever reason. That police department 100% needs to be sued. Call local news and get them involved.

I loved seeing y'all in Detroit. Thanks for taking us along.

Great update and a very weird story on the truck.Something there is not right. Thanks for the update.

I feel where your coming from. Somebody knows something. Keep digging, you'll find them. Crooks are dumb.

Tom you know Waterford cops did not care! they was looking for payouts on the sale

Great content thanks for sharing

Bobby and your team do beautiful work!

WOW, here in the deep south in a state called Florida , do have a DMV also . So when you called it in as stolen ,with a Florida registration , it looks like your local PD drop the simple ball of investigation . Or they are swamped with bigger crimes in your area .So stolen vehicles are not high on there priority list . Tom we think you know who is at fault on this one . Looking Forward to Summer Sick Week . Florida Sick Week was a blast.

IT'S CALLED THEFT BY CONVERSION. File charges if you have to. No one has the authority to just take your stuff.

And I gotta say, I love that Steve did those valve covers an intake for Aiden!!

Ive had this happen to me personally and seen it happen to others. They find it in a persons parking lot, learn its stolen and tow it to the impound yard. It sits, and the impound lot (police) call you to come get it. In my case they called 2 days prior to the auction requiring me to tag and insure it in order to retrieve it. I was able to do all this quickly and get it back. But often times they just dont call or care to call or get notice to call in the specified time. Mine was an automated call too... so it might be easy to pass this off as spam. Once you miss the call, they print up a new title and auction it off asap. Its the cops you need to look at.

It seems so simple that they would start with calling the person who reported it stolen. Duh! Didn't they have the address from where it was stolen? As you mentioned, it all happened within a few miles. This is just laziness by law authority.

The guy that bought it at auction is probably the same people that stole it.

Great stuff, better than the majority of what's on Netflix!

Neat stuff. Enjoyed watching ✌️ 😎

Just a couple of thoughts: 1 You report it stolen,you get a police report from them and call your insurance company you then have to wait 7days to see if it's been found ,if not then you get paid from the insurance company and they then own the vehicle "on paper" until the insurance company determines it a lose. 2. If the tow yard / cops or any one with the IQ higher than a house plant spent about 3seconds looking in the vehicle they would have found your registration and insurance info( If it was in there) and by some stroke of intelligence the Amazon package. Even my dog could have done a better job than what was done.

I am in total shock that law enforcement are worthless there, as well every where else!

Answers that lead to more questions make for very interesting content. I hope you get your rig back.

Great show..

Having a vehicle registered out of state is what broke the chain. The big question is why was it reg in Florida?

Hey Tom, your in luck. Lightfoot will soon be available to straighten out your town and police.

Turning into a law and order series lol love it

Law enforcement let you down big time, in their bureaucratic ineptitude they couldn't link a stolen vehicle report to a recovered stolen vehicle 👍🏻👍🏻😂😂

Somebody owes you a truck.

About your truck, keep pursuing the issue, you are doing a public service. I once had a buddy in a large metro police department, he stated often about said department, “ We are the biggest, best armed, best trained gang in the city”. Makes you think.

Is that a racket going on Holy cow Thanks for sharing Rock and Roll 💯👀👀👀👀

I believe you have a law suit there! Plain and simple they knew it was stolen and who it belonged to!

Before you send the bumpers out for chrome paint, how about trying to get them wrapped in chrome. You've seen the amazing wraps done and yours would be a good fit.

The willys was pretty kool on display! You guys even had the orange flannels still...

They stole your truck fight for it brother sorry you have to deal with this praying for you to prevail That blower looks huge you can’t hardly see anything but it wow 😂thanks for sharing🙏

love the non-roll cage. 💲💲💲

if the LEO did a third party inventory as stated by the tow service they would have a list of all your property that was left in the truck when you found it. you should put another hoop / cage system in the rear of the durango similar to whats up front

waterford needs a new sheriff dept that knows what the law is & learn the process.

There is something shady about this whole ordeal and I hope you continue to pursue this and expose whatever scam is going on

Pure Michigan, feel your pain Tom

I agree with you, What in hell do people do in that town. It’s weird that this happened in the same area. I hope you get it all sorted out and that you can get all back.😮😊

Cool 😎 . Let’s go !

Does autorama do chrome plating? I got a 70 240Z needing bumpers rechromed

We had a very similar issue with a stolen car happen many years ago in Memphis. Car turned up on side of interstate and we only found out because someone saw it. It got towed and auctioned by the city.

The system sucks when someone can report a vehicle stolen, then the police can find the vehicle, and then decide it’s got out of state plates so doesn’t matter. It should go off the VIN so once the police found it as an abandoned vehicle it’d show up as a stolen vehicle they had a report on. Kinda makes me wonder if the cops didn’t file a stolen vehicle report or something. The ball got dropped somewhere.

So excited.... but can't jump to crazy commenting without seeing the whole video.

So you own a vehicle and if it is registered out of state you have no rights and the sheriff sells your vehicle and keeps the cash and you are screwed ! how many times can you be ripped off on one vehicle ! Thank you Michigan , Good Job ! Sounds like a hell of a good deal for them ! Crooks helping Crooks is the Michigan Way !

I can’t miss this

I really hope you are working with a good lawyer for this! Imagine if it was somebody WAY less fortunate, whose vehicle was stolen. Luckily, your fortunate to have what you have, but most people have ONE vehicle that provides EVERYTHING to them, imagine if it was their vehicle and this happened...... crazy.

Government incompetence? No way! It sounds to me like they saw your FL registration and decided you didn't deserve the same level of effort as a truly 'local' stolen vehicle.

Sure wish we had access to the almost viral tractor video!!! Add a link, please 🙏

Never leave out the possibility it was cops that knew the system being involved. Don't dismiss the possibility in Michigan

Durango looks really good!

It sucks that you didn't get your car back but at least you know what happened to it. They still haven't found my Mazda that was stolen in Battle Creek and yes i would love to see a motorcycle class!

In Florida all tow companies, mechanic shops must legally send the last registered owner a certified letter to the registered address notifying them of due process and location of Thier vehicle , unless it's been seized ,

Stolen truck: Hope you took a few lawyers with you to the tow company.

Great to see Bob back in the shop!!! Happy to see you're trying to get to the bottom of this. Sounds like your local PD screwed the pooch on this. The guy that bought your truck at auction is a total D-Bag for not offering it back to you.

I love the stolen truck investigating

It sounds like Waterford PD is to blame because it sounds like they dropped the ball and said "too damn bad it's not our problem", it sounds like there needs to be an internal investigation into the detective who handled the case because it sounds like pure negligence.

Wow. Waterford Township really screwed this up. Living there for 40 years I’m not shocked.

am i understanding this to be that if it is stolen from out of state the owner may not be notified? and the lot that has it can eventually get a title for it and auction it off?

good luck

I seen that wagon at the autorama, cool stuff

I can tell you from being a property crimes Lieutenant in our sheriffs office once that VIN comes back stolen the notification to the Original Reporting Agency is made through the NCIS computer system into the agencies dispatch center. That information is given to the investigator handling the case. It’s the investigators responsibility to reach out to the owner. That is how it’s handled in Tennessee and as far as the recovery it’s an FBI based system and is nationwide. Sounds like the investigator made one or two phone calls without speaking to you and then said to hell with it and released the vehicle. The tow yard should have to publish for an amount of time in a local paper telling of the impending auction.

That's crazy and unacceptable. Their needs to be a better system then what they have