Man Buys Old Police SUV, But Has To Call The Cops Thanks To What He Found In The Car

Purchasing a used car can be a nerve-wracking experience as there are numerous factors you need to account for. But as one YouTuber recently proved, things can get even more complicated if you purchase decommissioned Police vehicles like the once prominent Crown Victoria. That became evident in a video recently uploaded onto the Crown Rick Auto YouTube Channel in which an unexpected discovery in the vehicle's glove box of a just-acquired police interceptor prompted a call to the force who'd been using it to patrol the streets of San Diego.

In the video's opening moments, the host is thrilled with the newly purchased vehicle, a potentially speedy Ford Explorer Interceptor Utility, after he picked it up from a San Diego auction house and transported it to his Sacramento garage. The plan was to strip the vehicle of all its various law-enforcement adornments, give it a fresh coat of paint, and sell it off. Indeed, the vehicle looks to be in solid shape from the exterior, but once the host starts digging through the interior, it's clear the overhaul will be a little more work than he might've anticipated.

Specifically, he notes the vehicle smells pretty bad on the inside. Moreover, there's refuse and spare parts aplenty strewn about, and when rifling through the vehicle's glove box, the host even uncovers a functional digital camera. Intrigued by the find, the man's attitude changes slightly when he views the images therein and ultimately decides to call the SDPD to report the discovery.

Surprisingly, the Crown Rick Auto YouTuber opts to view the images on the Canon digital camera during the video, doing so on the computer in his office as the camera rolls. Thankfully, perhaps even mercifully, the images he views aren't of anything too disturbing. Nonetheless, we aren't going to showcase them here, as there are some images of a woman's injured legs and arms. It's not clear what the injuries are or how they were sustained, but they could prove triggering nonetheless, with the video's host wisely skipping over any shots of the woman's face to protect her identity. (If you don't wish to see the images, be sure to skip the last part of the video.)

Apart from those images, there appear to be several depicting what may or may not be bullet holes that damaged some property at a construction site, as well as destruction believed to have been caused by a joy-riding vehicle that had crashed into the exterior of a school. While it's unclear exactly how old the pictures are, or how evidence like this was simply left behind in the vehicle before the department retired it and sent it out to auction, the man deems the pictures important enough to dial up the SDPD to let them know what he found.

The officer he speaks to is understandably interested in recovering the camera even though — as several commenters on the video note — the evidential chain of custody has been broken, likely making them inadmissible in a criminal case. Nonetheless, the man ultimately agrees to mail the camera to the station in San Diego, though he also admits he'll likely just send the SD card and keep the camera as part of his auction block victory.

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As noted, some of the comments on the Crow Rick Auto YouTube video rightly question the legality of any evidence on the camera due to chain of custody regulations. However, one and all seem to agree that the host did the right thing in not only alerting the San Diego Police Department of his findings, but also offering to mail the evidence back to them from Sacramento — even if he did end up deciding to keep the long-ago abandoned camera for himself.

According to some of the other comments, it is hardly a rarity to find such artifacts inside vehicles that are sold at police auctions, as many of them seemingly hit the block without being properly inspected by those in the police department. That was apparently true for an acquaintance of user @carljacobs1837, who recounted the story of how their friend was tracked down by local law enforcement and DEA agents shortly after purchasing a truck through a police auction. It seems the vehicle was part of a narcotics seizure, and still had a trove of drugs and cash tucked away underneath its door panels and seats.   

YouTuber @c.blakerockhart1128 chimed in with a story of their own, claiming to have found what they believed to be drugs and paraphernalia in a vehicle purchased at a government auction. Meanwhile, user @missingutah emphatically states that such discoveries are why they will never purchase anything second hand at a police auction, fearing they may inadvertently find themselves in a compromising position. Even we have to admit that it's hard to argue the logic there.