Your friend wrote a check to a repair shop can the repair shop report the car stolen with the VIN number?

The answer is both, yes and no.

Periodically, the auto manufacturers send the list of VIN [vehicle identification number] to the authourised repair shops to assist in the recovery of the stolen vehicles. The VIN is unique to each vehicle and thus has complete information of the vehicle. In an event of a theft, the VIN is flashed across the network for recovery.

However, this exercise is limited only to the dealer-workshop network and if the vehicle does not report within this network, it cannot be traced.

Ofcourse the local Police can definitely assist in its recovery through their efforts.

Bhupinder