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Cops Seize $130,000 Nissan Skyline GT-R At Florida Car Show And The Story Is Wild (Updated)
Car forums wept this week when pictures appeared of a 1999 Nissan Skyline GT-R getting towed away by Florida police at a car show in Daytona Beach. In some ways it’s not surprising—that generation of Skyline isn’t really legal to be in the U.S., though some are here under dubious circumstances. But what may look like a typical JDM import gone awry is so much more, now a case involving theft allegations between two longtime dealers and a legendary performance car being stuck in a confusing custody battle. (Update: One of the importers, Myoung Kim, got the car back tonight. See below for details.)
The Shady Way Shops Beat America’s 25-Year Car Import Rule
Last month, U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents raided All JDM Motors, a Japanese car import…
As a result, the dispute between a Japanese car importer and a former import car dealer has law enforcement baffled as to who actually owns the vehicle.
According to a Daytona Beach Police report, the seizure comes after a woman associated with a Japanese car importing operation reported the car stolen from her driveway in early April. About two weeks later, police discovered the allegedly-swiped vehicle at a car show in Daytona, but were told by the former imported car dealer—who was apparently showing the car off at the show—that the vehicle doesn’t actually belong to the importer, but rather to the dealer.
The situation has the police utterly confused. “It is unclear at the moment who the lawful owner is of [the Skyline],” the report filed last Saturday reads, “as neither party was able to produce any paperwork showing ownership.”
This uncertainty forced authorities to take the car away until they could figure out who actually owns the thing. “Due to the fact that the lawful owner of [the Skyline] could not be determined at this time,” the police officer wrote, “the [Skyline] was towed by Daytona Wrecker Service to the Daytona Beach Police Department for safekeeping until Detective Bryant can determine lawful ownership.”
It’s a confounding case for sure, and it only gets weirder from here.
Why Police Towed The Imported Nissan Skyline
The backstory, according to the report, begins with this: two automobile importers, Myoung Kim and John Stagnitta, had a longtime business arrangement where Kim, who’s 75, imported cars from Japan and had 51 year-old Stagnitta, operating in Orlando, Florida under the name Black Ops Performance, sell them. (Black Ops’ website is currently blank, having apparently suspended operations in late March.)
