(a) An enforcement officer, sheriff, or constable who learns of the theft of a vehicle not since recovered, or of the recovery of a vehicle whose theft or conversion he or she knows or has reason to believe has been reported to the Commissioner, shall forthwith report the theft or recovery to the Commissioner.

(b) An owner or a lienholder may report the theft of a vehicle, or its conversion if a crime, to the Commissioner, but the Commissioner may disregard the report of a conversion unless a warrant has been issued for the arrest of a person charged with the conversion. A person who has so reported the theft or conversion of a vehicle shall, forthwith after learning of its recovery, report the recovery to the Commissioner.

(c) An operator of a place of business for garaging, repairing, parking, or storing vehicles for the public, in which a vehicle remains unclaimed for a period of 30 days, shall, within five days after the expiration of that period, report the vehicle as unclaimed to the Commissioner. A vehicle left by its owner whose name and address are known to the operator or his or her employee is not considered unclaimed. A person who fails to report a vehicle as unclaimed in accordance with this subsection forfeits all claims and liens for its garaging, parking, or storing and shall be fined not more than $25.00 for each day his or her failure to report continues.

(d) The Commissioner shall maintain and appropriately index weekly any cumulative public records of stolen, converted, recovered, and unclaimed vehicles reported to him or her pursuant to this section. The Commissioner may make and distribute copies of the weekly records so maintained to enforcement officers upon request without fee and to others for the fee, if any, the Commissioner prescribes.

(e) The Commissioner may suspend the registration of a vehicle whose theft or conversion is reported to him or her pursuant to this section; until the Commissioner learns of its recovery or that the report of its theft or conversion was erroneous, he or she shall not issue a certificate of title for the vehicle. (Added 1969, No. 297 (Adj. Sess.), § 2, eff. Sept. 1, 1971.)