Chuck,
The weird part of that story is that happened to my little sister. She gave our nephew an old 'granny car' about five years ago. They lived in Texas and he lived in Florida. He drove it back and used it for about a year. Then it was stolen.
Long story short, four years later, the police 'recover' the car IN FLORIDA. My little sister doesn't want it, doesn't want to go get, etc. So she called her nephew (now living in Anchorage, AK) and gets a phone number for one of his Mom's relatives still in Miami. She gave it to them. As one of them had been recently hit by an unisured driver and NEEDED a car, it all worked out.
The reason for the recovery is as you said. The people who stole it 'dummied' a title and ran it through DMV and then sold it. Unfortunately for the person who bought it, it went through some form of inspection because of an out of date license plate. UPON INSPECTION, title and VIN did not match. SO she got her car back.