Let's say my vehicle is stolen, and police find a vehicle at my neighbor's house with the identical make, model, and year but with the VIN sanded off. And this neighbor just so happens to operate a shipping company that specializes in shipping vehicles out of the country, but has never been convicted of anything criminal.

How would you say we should handle this scenario? We have a good reason to believe that the property is actually mine, and also that if it is not seized soon then it will be lost forever. (Since, as we all know, court rulings happen on much longer time scales.)

If you have an overly aggressive civil forfeiture law then the police can seize things when they shouldn't. But if you have none, then don't you hamstring law enforcement unnecessarily, and instead provide greater incentive for crime?