In Brest, traffic police officers together with specialists from the State Committee of Forensic Examinations discovered that a car registered to a local resident had been listed as stolen for more than two decades.
A 65-year-old Brest resident contacted the traffic police to update the registration certificate for his Volkswagen Passat. However, the procedure was denied after inspectors noticed discrepancies between the identification numbers on the body and the factory plate.
An examination by a specialist from the State Committee of Forensic Examinations revealed that the car’s identification number had been altered: the original factory plate was removed and replaced with a new one made in violation of the German manufacturer’s technology.
The expert managed to restore the original VIN number, allowing the car’s “biography” to be traced. The inspection showed that the vehicle had been reported stolen in the Stolin District in the early 2000s, the press service of the State Committee of Forensic Examinations said.
According to experts, cases in which a stolen car is found within the same country are rare. Most often, the trail of such criminal vehicles leads abroad.