2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE NINE - Highways and Traffic (§§ 1-8 — 5725) › Chapter 25 - Vehicular Property (§§ 3201 — 3227) › § 3217 - Violations—Illegal appropriation of vehicle; special penal measures

Any person who, without violence or intimidation, unlawfully takes a motor vehicle belonging to another person shall be guilty of a third-degree felony. The court may impose the penalty of restitution in addition to the established penalty of imprisonment.
It shall be understood that the taking is illegal in any of the following circumstances when the person:
(1) Has appropriated him/herself of, or seized, the vehicle without the owner’s consent.
(2) Has used trickery, fraud, deception or subterfuge to acquire the illegal possession, use or control of the vehicle through the voluntary surrender of the appropriated vehicle from its owner, holder, driver or custodian.
(3) After leasing a vehicle, he does not return the vehicle to the lessor within twenty-four (24) hours of the expiration of the effectiveness of the lease or rental contract, without notifying the leaseholder of the reason for such delay.
(4) Sells or, in any other fashion, alienates, dismantles or allows another person to dismantle the vehicle without the owner’s consent.
(5) Has obtained legal possession of the vehicle through purchase subject to financing, ceased to comply with the financing contract terms and payments, conceals and hides a vehicle thus thwarting the financing company of its right to repossess the same after the corresponding writ of embargo has been issued by the court.
(6) Has notified the vehicle as illegally appropriated, stolen or missing to the Police, financing institution or underwriting firm with the purpose of freeing him/herself from the payment of monthly installments, or that he/she be paid for the loss of a vehicle in accordance with the insurance policy.
(7) Sells, purchases, or in any other fashion alienates or acquires the vehicle with the intent of defrauding the financing company or the subsequent buyer and being liberated of the debt or from complying with the existing obligations, or when he dismantles or allows another person to dismantle a vehicle which is bound to a conditional sale, or a financing lease contract, or any other type of secured loan without the written consent of the conditional seller, the creditor or the financing institution.
(8) Any person who, acting as a middleman, buys, receives, sells, or alienates a motor vehicle that is subject to financing with the intent to sell it or transfer it without the written consent of the conditional seller, the creditor, or the financial institution that financed the motor vehicle to the original buyer, shall be guilty of a third-degree felony, and punished by a fine of not less than five thousand dollars ($5,000). The court, at its discretion, may impose restitution in addition to the penalties imposed herein.
For purposes of this section, the term “middleman” shall mean any natural or juridical person who, acting as a middleman, broker, agent, or facilitator, engages in the purchase, sale, transfer, or any other kind of alienation of motor vehicles without being authorized by virtue of a dealer or reseller license or other license that authorizes him/her to sell vehicles as required by law.
None of the provisions of this section shall prevent prosecution under any other applicable legal provision. Neither does it legalize the practice of middlemen without a dealer license or other license that authorizes the sale of motor vehicles when non-financed motor vehicles are involved.
History —Aug. 5, 1987, No. 8, p. 612, § 18; Aug. 4, 1988, No. 149, p. 633; July 24, 1998, No. 171, § 1; Sept. 14, 2004, No. 282, § 2; Sept. 1, 2010, No. 130, § 1; Sept. 19, 2011, No. 197, § 2.