The whole VIN and title idea is that, only an idea to keep thieves at bay and to attempt to avoid thefts of vehicles. Most vehicle thefts in my area of much older vehicles, those 70-90 vintage vehicles that nobody would miss in the first place. They are stolen and sold for parts and nobody will ever go looking for them due to the low value to begin with.
There was a rash of those vehicles stolen the last few years, the thieves are after the engines, transmission, transfer cases in 4x4's and axles, the rest is cut up so small and mostly rusted out anyhow, nobody will require any documentation to go with them. Its mostly whole vehicles that require a junking certificate, so if I were to load up a whole load of smashed vehicles and have the glass, tires, batteries and gas tank removed, I have to have provide a junking certificate to go with each vehicle.
This came about in several ordeals, first I loaded up a whole load of junk vehicles a few years back, was told by the guy who had them, none were road worthy and he was sick of them laying around and just take them. So after the drop off, and after going through the crusher, it turns out someone did have a valid title to one of the vehicles and he pressed charges against the salvage yard for theft and got paid damages for his truck, the person who told me to load it and haul it got paid directly from the salvage yard [I was paid to load and haul only] so I avoided prosecution. The second time around, a property owners widow hired me to load up and haul everything in sight to salvage, which I did, turns out her husband had willed with titles four of the vehicles I hauled in for the widow, those too were paid damages to the owner who possessed the titles, I again avoided penalty and prosecution due to only doing what I was told and the vehicles were not considered modern enough and late model enough to warrant a fine or jail time for theft of private property in my state.
In talking with the salvage yard, they'd had dozens of cases against them over the years and found out if they requested a junking certificate, they avoided the hassle of the whole deal, not to mention the costs associated with it all. If you can't provide the junking certificate, they won't accept the vehicle, also the check gets written out to whoever the junking certificate is in, not the one selling it to the salvage yard. All the salvage yards in my area are now requiring junking certificates.
I sit midway between four or five salvage yards, the closest being 20 miles the farthest being 70 miles, they all pay about the same, so we tend to take the closest one, depending on where I'm loading and hauling it from.
Those stealing vehicles to part out and sell the parts, only have to cut up the remaining portion of the vehicles and scatter them out over several loads and nobody will ever look at VIN numbers ever, nor go looking for a stolen vehicle that's been parted out in the first place, who will spend time to go look for a 1975 rusted out ford pickup worth a couple hundred bucks in its whole form, when the thief can part it out, make a few thousand and sell the rest for 50 bucks in scrap out of state where nobody is looking for the remains of a cut up 1975 smashed cab and flattened box from a ford pickup in amongst a semi load of scrap headed to the crusher minutes after it arrives two years after being reported stolen two states away and long forgotten about.
I make more money doing the loading and hauling and it also sidesteps the liability issues with stolen vehicles to a certain extent. The last few years, vehicles can be free to me and I won't accept them, I'll only take them if I'm paid to haul them for the person who's trying to give them to me and then only if I know the person really well. All the rest of the drama and crap involving anything titled I want to avoid completely.