Missouri Laws 301.401 – Special mobile equipment and tires, defacing serial number prohibited — penalty
1. Any person who removes, covers, alters, or defaces, or causes to be destroyed, removed, covered, altered, or defaced, the manufacturer‘s serial number, the motor number or other distinguishing number on special mobile equipment or special mobile equipment tires, the property of another, for any reason, shall be deemed guilty of a class E felony. Further, any person who knowingly buys, sells, receives, disposes of, conceals or has in his possession special mobile equipment or special mobile equipment tires from which the manufacturer’s serial number, motor number or other distinguishing number has been removed, covered, altered, defaced or destroyed shall be deemed guilty of a class E felony.
2. Every peace officer who has probable cause to believe that and has knowledge of an item of special mobile equipment on which the original manufacturer’s distinguishing number has been removed, covered, altered, or defaced shall be authorized to seize immediately and to take possession of said item of special mobile equipment.
Attorney's Note
Under the Missouri Laws, punishments for crimes depend on the classification. In the case of this section:| Class | Prison | Fine |
|---|---|---|
| Class E felony | up to 4 years | up to $10,000 |
Terms Used In Missouri Laws 301.401
- Entitlement: A Federal program or provision of law that requires payments to any person or unit of government that meets the eligibility criteria established by law. Entitlements constitute a binding obligation on the part of the Federal Government, and eligible recipients have legal recourse if the obligation is not fulfilled. Social Security and veterans' compensation and pensions are examples of entitlement programs.
- Manufacturer: any person, firm, corporation or association engaged in the business of manufacturing or assembling motor vehicles, trailers or vessels for sale. See Missouri Laws 301.010
- Owner: any person, firm, corporation or association, who holds the legal title to a vehicle or who has executed a buyer's order or retail installment sales contract with a motor vehicle dealer licensed under sections 301. See Missouri Laws 301.010
- person: may extend and be applied to bodies politic and corporate, and to partnerships and other unincorporated associations. See Missouri Laws 1.020
- Probable cause: A reasonable ground for belief that the offender violated a specific law.
- Property: includes real and personal property. See Missouri Laws 1.020
- Special mobile equipment: every self-propelled vehicle not designed or used primarily for the transportation of persons or property and incidentally operated or moved over the highways, including farm equipment, implements of husbandry, road construction or maintenance machinery, ditch-digging apparatus, stone crushers, air compressors, power shovels, cranes, graders, rollers, well-drillers and wood-sawing equipment used for hire, asphalt spreaders, bituminous mixers, bucket loaders, ditchers, leveling graders, finished machines, motor graders, road rollers, scarifiers, earth-moving carryalls, scrapers, drag lines, concrete pump trucks, rock-drilling and earth-moving equipment. See Missouri Laws 301.010
3. If at any time while such special mobile equipment remains in the custody of the law enforcement authority having seized it, the true owner thereof shall appear and prove to the satisfaction of such law enforcement authority his ownership of and entitlement to said item of special mobile equipment, it shall be returned to said owner subject to its being made available for use in any criminal prosecution under this section.
4. If, after twelve months, no person has appeared and proved he is the true owner of an item of special mobile equipment seized under this section, the court in which such prosecution was begun may advertise and sell said item of special mobile equipment under such terms as are reasonable. The proceeds of such sale shall be applied, first, to the payment of any expenses incurred in association with such sale; second, to the payment of the fine and costs of prosecution; and the balance, if any, shall be paid over to the county commission of the county in which the prosecution was begun for its application to that county’s general revenues.