Nevada DMV.... anyone got any ideas?

[fingpilot]

April 2006. Bought a 1973 Honda CB350Four from a guy in Vegas. It had no plates on it, and a lien sale package completed from a towing agency in Vegas. I was familiar with these, having done one or two myself over the years.

Took it along with a couple of other recent purchases to Flamingo DMV for title and reg. 3 other bikes, from CA so they had to be VIN verified, and then inside to get all 4 done at once. The little 350-4 was 'verified' by a registered vin verifier at the towing agency that did the paperwork, so no need to reverify at the DMV.

Title (clear) and reg/plates issued that day. Have been happily riding it every so often ever since.

Decide to sell it last weekend. Buyer went over to verify VIN and discovered that VIN on paperwork is nowhere near what is on bike.

I know, you say, my bad for not in 3 years ever noticing the diff.

OK, so I call NV DMV (you CAN actually speak to a real, live person) and after verifying me, they run the paperwork VIN. Yes, comes back to my title.

Then they run the VIN that is actually on the bike. Comes back to a valid NV title (not me) with an expired reg. They cannot tell me that name (privacy). The transfer date on that title is within days of my transfer date.

The only thing they can tell me is that the seller is the same on both titles, but cannot tell me that name. (I do not remember it, but could drive to his house if I was in that part of the world).

I had a California CHP up to verify the VIN on the NV paperwork form, cuz I had been told that it was simply a NV DMV error, and they would fix it and issue a new title with a verified VIN, even from CA. He ran the engine and VIN numbers from all the combinations, and all come back clear, but I (stupidly) did not pay attention to the names as they were read back from the radio.

Now, I am being told that because there is a valid NV title with MY VIN out there, they cannot issue another title that dupes one in existance.

Obviously, the seller mixed up the paperwork with two CB350F's he sold and no one caught it. Funny thing is, the 'other guy' would have had to had his bike VIN verified because it was a CA title. Yet somehoe, he got a title with MY VIN, and (presumably) I have the title for his bike's VIN.

Ideas?

Obviously Nevada issued titles in error, but they are dragging a$$. All of this for a bike that is not worth enough to shove it down someones' throat in NV.