United States v. David Leonard Edwards, Jr.

Appellant was convicted of transporting a stolen motor vehicle in interstate commerce in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2312 . We affirm.

Appellant and a companion offered to sell to a Cadillac dealer the hubcaps from a 1968 Cadillac they were driving. The dealer became suspicious and called the police.

Upon arriving at the scene and before contacting appellant, Officer Hibbetts ran a check on the vehicle’s license number to determine if the vehicle had been stolen. The check was negative. Nonetheless, Officer Hibbetts decided to investigate. He approached appellant and requested various items of personal identification and the vehicle registration. He noticed discrepancies between the license numbers on the various documents. He also noticed pry marks around the vehicle’s trunk lock and that the “wind wing” on the passenger’s side was broken out. He asked appellant to follow him to the police station where the discrepancies could be resolved. Appellant agreed. At the station, Officer Hibbetts looked through the windshield and saw the vehicle identification number on a plastic tab attached to the lip of the dashboard. A cheek based on this number disclosed that the vehicle had been…