The Expert Podcast

This is why you have to be very careful with VIN numbers on certain types of vehicles, especially some motorcycles. In this case, we're going to talk about Harley-Davidson motorcycles, but also other types of vehicles with VIN numbers.

This is a case where somebody was in a high-speed chase, and they got pulled over when they ran out of gas. But that's not really the important part of the article. What happens is this person was accused of grinding down identification numbers on the motorcycle.

Now, why is that a thing? Well, the identification number, or VIN (Vehicle Identification Number), is the number that officially designates which vehicle this is. That's the number that tells you which vehicle you own, and it's the number that shows up on a title. If you have a vehicle that has a lien or is stolen, that VIN number is going to keep you from selling it, registering it, titling it, or whatever the case may be. But if you can somehow obscure that VIN number or change it, then criminals can have a vehicle for free.

In this case, the vehicle, I believe, had a lien on it from a bank. So what they did was swap out some parts and grind down the VIN numbers off the parts to make it seem like this was a legitimate vehicle. However, having a vehicle with tampered VIN numbers is a crime by itself. You don't want to have any kind of altered, changed, or removed VIN numbers on a vehicle.

Also, you're not really going to go far because, even if you grind it down, there are methods you can use with certain chemicals to bring back the VIN number. When a VIN number is stamped into a piece of metal, the depressed part of that VIN number—even if ground off—still leaves compressed metal below the part you can see. So, if you apply certain types of acid or chemicals, you can actually bring back that VIN number.

You're not really going to solve anything by removing a VIN number from a vehicle. In this case, they were processing it for forfeiture when they discovered the ID numbers had been ground off. So, you're not going to get too far by changing VIN numbers.

Be very careful with some types of vehicles, especially motorcycles, because in some cases, the ID number for a motorcycle is actually on the engine, not on the frame. If you just swap out the engine, you might try to hide a vehicle that doesn't have a good title.

So, be careful with VIN numbers and be aware that you don’t want to remove or alter any VIN numbers on a motor vehicle because you can get in trouble for that.