Cue: "You stole it!" "Hi Thief!" "Yeah, right, you stole it!", etc. Hopefully that nonsense is out of the way.

My Dad likes golf carts and quads. He buys fixer uppers and parts pretty regularly to keep himself busy nearing retirement. One day I mentioned how I'd like to swap him one of my gas golf cart projects for an electric cart project. I knew he had a few in his shed that I had my eye on (he has a cool limo cart used for carting injured players off fields for example). Long story short, he shows up at my place to swap my cart for a 2002 Ford Think. If you're not aware, it is basically a street legal golf cart. It arrived in multiple boxes but no title. Neither of us realized it was street legal until I noticed the VIN number and looked it up.

Now I'm in a pickle. He doesn't remember who he bought it from to backtrack it ourselves. It was sitting so long it might not even be registered to this state. EDIT: Found it is registered in NY.

How can I find out who owned it previously?

Is there a method to claim it if that person is unreachable?

Should I give up the idea of ever restoring it to street worthy status?