Abandoned vehicle question that Y!A felt it should delete.?

The original owner of a vehicle sells it to another person. This person does not register it in his/her name, but leaves it in the owner’s original name, transports the vehicle across the state of Virginia, and then “abandons” it in a storage facility. This storage facility then lists it as abandoned. The VDMV contacts the original owner and notifies him/her of the location of the vehicle.

When the original owner contacts the jerk about the vehicle, He refuses to discuss it without the title. The location is 5.5 hours away from the original owner and the individual is too stupid to understand this and still demands to see the title.

The person holding the vehicle can sell or scrap the vehicle, probably making a nice profit off of it by listing it as abandoned, assuming the site is legitimate to being with. The location the person claims is the storage facility is, by photos, a vacant lot. Since this person refuses to confirm the VIN of the vehicle, who put it there, or any other information, including value, liens, condition, and so on, there is no way to verify it is not a scam. (Note, after this was deleted by Yahoo, I’m starting to think that the storage provider IS a scam and will notify the owner/police of this).

Does the storage facility have the right to refuse to talk about a vehicle to the “legal” owner? Is the “legal” owner responsible for the vehicle since s/he didn’t put it in storage? Finally, what would you do in this situation?