My grandfather had an old Studebaker truck that was left out in the grove at my uncle's farm. My uncle told me I could have it, but he didn't know where the title was. My uncle (who was the executor of the estate) went with me to the Minnesota DMV and they told us that I needed to place a bond and have a title search and this and that and the other thing and pay out $300 to $400 even though we knew who the owner was and the executor was right there. I just took the VIN and license plate numbers to the South Dakota Highway Patrol, Auto Theft Dept. (I live just on the other side of the state line) and they ran a check on it. It came back clean and they signed a paper stating their findings. I took it down to the South Dakota DMV and $25 later I hade a title and plates. South Dakota is still pretty easy, but they are starting to stiffen up a little. If I don't transfer the title right away in SD, they will charge $1 a day up to $50 in fines. Minnesota and Iowa are ugly.
