Was justice served?

A man in Alabama lost the 1968 Camaro he’d owned since 2016 after the VIN for his muscle car matched one that was registered in Tennessee recently. As Alabama authorities investigated the curious case, they found the Camaro belonging to Thomas Hadley had the same VIN as one that was reported as stolen in Kansas 20 years ago. However, after seizing the vehicle, a court has ruled that the state was in the wrong and the Camaro should be returned to Hadley.

A new fear of ours has been unlocked by this.

Originally, Hadley was alerted to the problem when investigators from the Alabama Department of Revenue paid him a surprise visit, reports Fox 10 News. After finding the VIN of the stolen car was indeed listed on the firewall of the Camaro, the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office tried seizing it.

Hadley’s son, who is an attorney, took the Camaro to his house and told the sheriff’s office he would hold it until everything could be sorted out. After all, how did a Camaro in Tennessee have the same VIN and was that in fact the stolen one from Kansas?

Such details seemingly didn’t matter to local law enforcement, with the sheriff’s office obtaining a warrant to search Handley’s son’s house for evidence or a crime. The thing was they reportedly didn’t tell the judge who signed the warrant that they were going to just take the Camaro, something which factored into the recent court decision.

After towing Hadley’s Camaro from his son’s house, authorities shipped it to Kansas to be reunited with the person who lost theirs two decades ago. The problem is it’s not the same car, at least according to every other VIN on the Chevy authorities seem to have missed, according to Hadley’s attorney.

It appears the judge agreed with this assessment of the facts, which is why the court ordered the Camaro to be returned to Hadley. But the man hasn’t received his classic muscle car back, yet. Instead, the sheriff’s office says the DA’s office might appeal the court decision.

From the details of the news report, this does sound like the Camaro had the firewall from the stolen car, likely installed by someone else long ago. We know law enforcement is well aware of chop shops, and it’s curious there’s only a passing mention of the Camaro in Tennessee bearing the same VIN. Why wasn’t all that sorted out before seizing Hadley’s car and shipping it to Kansas? That’s the burning question we have about this whole case.