About a month later, a Wake Forest used-car dealership that had sold Smith the 1998 Chrysler Concorde noticed he was late on his monthly $300 payment. The dealership tracked the car to Smithfield, where towing and storage fees had accrued to $1,175 -- or a third of what the dealership said the car could sell for.

"We're 18 months into building a business," said Keith Starke, president of Wake Forest Pre-Owned. "Everyone's told me to let it go. I can't afford to do that."

Starke also thinks under state law either the Smithfield police department or Cox Repair should have notified him sooner. He points to one state statute that says businesses that store or repair cars should report a vehicle to the Division of Motor Vehicles within five days of a car being "unclaimed" for 10 days. No storage fees should be charged between the time a report is supposed to be filed and when it is actually submitted, the law states.

Who notifies whom? It's fuzzy

Another statute says law enforcement officers should immediately notify the DMV when they have seized a car used in some unlawful activity. The DMV then notifies the owner or lienholder.

But interpretation of the law is murky.

Last week, the Johnston County District Attorney's Office determined no party had made "a clear-cut violation" of the law, said J.I. Gardner Jr., assistant director of the DMV's license and theft bureau.

"I think the biggest thing here is the law is not really clear on any of this," Gardner said.

Law enforcement officers typically notify the DMV only if they are about to sell the car, Gardner said. And with the repair shop, the question was when the car was "unclaimed."

Lloyd Cox, owner of the repair shop, said he didn't consider the car "unclaimed" while the police and State Bureau of Investigation were holding it for evidence.

"Whenever law enforcement has a hold on a vehicle, there's no point in trying to locate the owner," Cox said.

'Victimized twice'

The DMV said it receives many complaints about storage fees, not just from lienholders. Owners of vehicles that are stolen often also get charged storage fees if their cars are found and towed.

"People feel like they've been victimized twice," Gardner said.

In some towns, such as Cary, police have their own lots to store cars under investigation, so storage fees aren't as much an issue.

Cox said after the used car dealership called him, he asked police on Feb. 15 to release the vehicle. And he notified the DMV on Feb. 22 that he had the car. Cox said he had been willing to lower the storage fees some, but not give the car back for free. "I've got a business to operate," he said.

Kat Messenger of the Carolinas Independent Automobile Dealers Association, which represents used-car dealers in the state, said she has heard of several similar conflicts in recent months.

She suggests devices that can trigger a GPS system if a customer misses a payment, allowing a dealer to quickly find a car. The technology is growing more popular, but only about 1 percent of used-car dealerships currently use it, said Michael Conners, distributor of PassTime devices with GPS. It's more cost-effective for dealers of higher-priced used cars in the $8,000 to $12,000 range, Conners said.

For now, the Chrysler Concorde, which didn't cost that much, still sits on Cox Repair's 8-acre lot in Smithfield.

Starke, the used-car dealer, hasn't given up. He says he will take the issue to his state legislators.