How to trace a plate?

Ok, so curiousity has gotten the best of me. I was at the scene of an accident in Pierce Cty WI shortly after it happened on Monday. It was out on county road O- which to any western WI/Minnesotan is known as a great stretch to test some corners. However, it's also the scene of frequent accidents due to people overcooking it and wrapping it around a tree. This was one of those cases.

Where it gets interesting is there is a red 1989 Probe GT with an interesting engine swap that was listed for sale in WI, in roughly the same area via probetalk, found by 92celicahalftrac. As the car in the accident was clearly a Red Probe GT (I could tell by the spoiler, which was unharmed) I kinda want to know if it's the same one. I have the plate from the for sale thread, and I have the name of the person involved in the accident. I can't seem to connect the two via the probetalk username... so that's out. Call it an excercise in boredom if you will. Plus, if the car is in the j/y right now, it has a motor I want.

Any ideas as to how to accomplish it? I'm trying to connect this accident-

http://www.piercecountyherald.com/event/article/id/101250/publisher_ID/19/

to this car-

that has this engine-

.

I honestly doubt it's the same person, but curiousity has the best of me.

Get the police report from the local police - it's a public record and will have the plate number.

Yeah, been working that angle. Unfortunately while St. Croix county's website is amazingly easy to use for this, I think we were still in Pierce county, which is about as updated as the county itself.

so what is your interest in this FE3 (?) swapped probe?

I happen to have its platform mate in my parking lot. I'm thinking challenge swap kit in a box. All the hard work has been done, and assuming it's balled up, it's probably available cheap. Worst case scenario, I scavenge what I want off the chassis, and turn the rest into budget cap room.

Damn! That one purty probe.

Sadly, I'm kinda hopin' it's not. The guy sounds like he's ok.... so no one died. But yeah, the car itself is/was nice.

Does this help?

in michigan you can go to the secretary of state and pay five bucks and they'll give you the name and address that go with any michigan license plate. perhaps your DMV has similar service?

It's possible. Don't wanna pay 5 bucks for something I can potentially get for free though. I'm thinking the accident report hasn't been filed yet by the cop because it was kind of messy. I'll keep checking.

Also, this is all because of you people, and I want you to know that. I see a wreck and the first thing I thought was "Wow, I have something that could use parts from that. I should track it down".

AngryCorvair wrote: in michigan you can go to the secretary of state and pay five bucks and they'll give you the name and address that go with any michigan license plate. perhaps your DMV has similar service?

Wait What? I certainly would not have cut off all those DB's if I knew that.

Kendall_Jones wrote:

AngryCorvair wrote: in michigan you can go to the secretary of state and pay five bucks and they'll give you the name and address that go with any michigan license plate. perhaps your DMV has similar service?

Wait What? I certainly would not have cut off all those DB's if I knew that.

no E36 M3. that service was advertised on the SOS website. i changed a few habits once i knew the info was so cheap. :-(

mndsm wrote: It's possible. Don't wanna pay 5 bucks for something I can potentially get for free though. I'm thinking the accident report hasn't been filed yet by the cop because it was kind of messy. I'll keep checking. Also, this is all because of you people, and I want you to know that. I see a wreck and the first thing I thought was "Wow, I have something that could use parts from that. I should track it down".

Around here a police report costs at least a fiver.

AngryCorvair wrote:

Kendall_Jones wrote:

AngryCorvair wrote: in michigan you can go to the secretary of state and pay five bucks and they'll give you the name and address that go with any michigan license plate. perhaps your DMV has similar service?

Wait What? I certainly would not have cut off all those DB's if I knew that.

no E36 M3. that service was advertised on the SOS website. i changed a few habits once i knew the info was so cheap. :-(

That must be why all those hondas get stolen. Got a linky? I didnt see one.

KJ, I think it's

in here

but don't have much time to dig around right now. in initial glance, maybe you need to have the VIN, not just the license plate number.