This kind of bureaucratic nonsense is rediculous. Sometimes when in doubt you need to just write the damn report as a stolen. Now don’t get me wrong… there are actually a lot of occasions where an auto theft isn’t really a “theft” and will end up a civil problem. It’s pretty common actually. It is also common for people to lie and try to report the vehicle as stolen. It is usually pretty obvious when their story has holes and doesn’t make sense though. Regardless…when in doubt take the report and call it a stolen. Unfortunately (at least in my state) it doesn’t make a bit of difference on the impound fees. It isn’t unusual for a signed stolen vehicle to be recovered and if the registered owner can’t be located or can recover the vehicle it is impounded. At the owners expense. Kind of insult on top of injury in my opinion. And the registration thing is weird? They can’t just run your name and check your drivers license to make sure it’s you? I totally understand bureaucratic procedures exist for a reason, but at some point you have to be reasonable. Ultimately if a report had been taken it wouldn’t have changed things much, but still… sometimes it takes more work to NOT do work than to just take the report right away. I frequently write reports that go nowhere, but at least make people feel heard.