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Comment by Panzerschrek | Hacker News Reader

You can't just sell a whole tanker of oil without proving it's yours. Nobody (or almost nobody) want to risk doing such purchase.

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When my dad passed away somewhere along the years of various moves and owners of the boat my mom or my uncle of my brother in law had lost the title to the boat and it was such a huge family debacle for YEARS because no one could prove who the owner was and they had to go through the estate to contact each owner of the boat through all the years since it was made every single person who ever had possession of the boat before it could be given away or sold to make sure it was not stolen it was the biggest headache for my mom and sisters and I to deal with. Also the hull, trailer and motor all had separate titles.

Now whenever I see an abandoned boat somewhere I'm like... they must have illegally dumped it because they lost the title and couldn't handle the administrative burden!!

After the years of headaches - what happened to the boat? Rusting in a shed?

We had to write two certified letters to all the previous owners, then we either filed that reply or the returned unsigned certified mail after 45 days (for each previous owner) we were able finally file a title transfer application with the Department of Wildlife and the DMV, then we had to wait for two letters to clear the title with those organizations and then finally we applied for a new title from the DMV. It was like 3 years of my life. We finally sold it!

You could have given it away or fire sold it with a simple bill of sale and let the next guy do all the BS if they so chose.

Seems like enough of parties involved had attitudes that precluded that though.

There is always buyers or ways to utilize the cargo. There are many countries that would happily take in the oil for a sizeable discount.

Groups also when the host country wants a layer of deniability.

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