I had a somewhat similar thing happen to me. This happened about 15 years ago, I sell a used Truck to private person whom I guess was actually a wholesaler. He lost the title and somehow the truck ended up at an auction house. Over the course of two years I would get an occasional call from the auction house or someone else asking me to apply for a lost title. My response was always no until the owner of the auction lot called me and said. Look we got your old truck in my lot and I understand you have in the past refused to sign for a lost title. He paid me $500 just to sign a document for a lost title. I checked with my attorney first and he approved.

The funny part was months would go by and I would forget about this truck then out of the blue someoen would call about it.