When a South Florida woman went to renew her car\u2019s registration, she found a lien on her tag. It was for a car she\u2019d reported stolen more than three decades ago. So she called Help Me Howard with Brandon Beyer.<\/p>\n
Jan Schill\u2019s South Florida roots run deep. She was born and raised in the Sunshine State.<\/p>\n
Jan Schill: \u201cMy whole life and my grandparents\u2019 lives, they moved here when they were children.\u201d<\/p>\n
And she\u2019s enjoyed exploring it. Especially when she was younger.<\/p>\n
She took so many drives in one of her first cars \u2013 she gave it a name. \u201cTrip.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jan Schill: \u201cJust because it was fun to take a trip in it.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was a 1992. And it looked a lot like this one.<\/p>\n
Jan Schill: \u201cIt was a Mercedes 300 Diesel. It was a great driving car, it was just so smooth and, back then, diesel was less expensive than gas.\u201d<\/p>\n
She says she only had the car for two years. And then it was stolen.<\/p>\n
Jan Schill: \u201cWe parked it in the driveway and when I came out the next day it wasn\u2019t there.\u201d<\/p>\n
The car was never found. She filed a claim with her insurance company and moved on.<\/p>\n
Jan Schill: \u201cI had to give them the title and they gave me the check.\u201d<\/p>\n
That was more than 30 years ago.<\/p>\n
Then in 2025 \u2013 Jan got a call from the sheriff\u2019s office.<\/p>\n
Her car had been found in the bottom of a canal.<\/p>\n
Jan Schill: \u201cAnd I said, \u2018That\u2019s not my Mercedes anymore. I had signed it over to the insurance company.’\u201d<\/p>\n
She thought that was the end of it.<\/p>\n
But months later, when she went to renew her tags, she discovered a lien had been placed against her by the company who\u2019d towed the car out of the water.<\/p>\n
Jan Schill: \u201cAnd I said, \u2018Well, I\u2019ve never had a car towed recently, it must be wrong,\u2019 then they told me it was that Mercedes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Howard, the car has been gone for more than 30 years. Who\u2019s responsible for paying the tow company who recovered it?<\/p>\n
Howard Finkelstein: \u201cThe insurance company is responsible, and here\u2019s why. When Jan\u2019s car was stolen \u2013 and not recovered \u2013 her insurance company declared it a total loss and paid Jan the value of the car. At that point, the insurance company became the owner of the car, so they are responsible for paying the tow company who recovered the car.\u201d<\/p>\n
We reached out to Jan\u2019s insurance company who thanked us for alerting them.<\/p>\n
The same week, they sent a check to the tow company who pulled the car from the canal, who then lifted the lien they\u2019d placed on Jan.<\/p>\n
Jan Schill: \u201cThey had me on a merry-go-round, I could have never gotten it done, ever.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jan was finally able to renew her tags.<\/p>\n
And she\u2019s still behind the wheel, exploring her home state.<\/p>\n
Jan Schill: \u201cIt was so quick. Within 24 hours, things were moving on this, so thank you so much.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jan\u2019s story is unique, but people get their cars totaled and paid off all the time.<\/p>\n
Howard says if that happens to you \u2013 ask your insurance company for proof that they notified the DMV of change of ownership.<\/p>\n
Got a problem? Need a hand? Here\u2019s how to find us below. It\u2019s Help Me Howard. I\u2019m Brandon Beyer, 7News.<\/p>\n
CONTACT HELP ME HOWARD Copyright 2026 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.<\/p>\n \tJoin our Newsletter for the latest news right to your inbox<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When a South Florida woman went to renew her car\u2019s registration, she found a lien on her tag.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":445781,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[225,227,226],"class_list":["post-445780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hialeah","tag-hialeah","tag-hialeah-headlines","tag-hialeah-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=445780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445780\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/445781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=445780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=445780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Email: helpmehoward@wsvn.com<\/a>
Reporter: Brandon Beyer at bbeyer@wsvn.com<\/a>
Miami-Dade: 305-953-WSVN
Broward: 954-761-WSVN<\/p>\n