Questionif a car is sold by an owner and stolen before the buyer has a chance to transfer the title when its recovered who is the vehicle to be released to?
Answerdepends on state laws, and the paperwork in hand.
Each case is different as some states say you have 72 hours to transfer paperwork, others 30 days.
And a lot of other issues come into play here, as the tow company will want to establish who the "legal owner" is and that is who should be getting the vehicle, and paying the bill
The local police department or even DMV might have to make the choice as to who the owner is, in order to get some kind of papers as to who is able to get it out.
Sorry for not having a good answer, but to many different laws to guess on
