Well, it so happens I am a police officer with 20 years experience.
Laws vary from state to state. In my state, there are tens of thousands of laws dealing with just about anything you can imagine. Even attorneys I deal with at my D.A.'s office don't presume to know everything.
As with many crimes, intent is one of the elements of a crime and is probably a factor here. Selling this item may very well fall into the catagory of merely selling a curio. If the seller advertises it as a way to switch VINs and get away with auto theft, then that may fall into a specific crime. But he isn't that dumb. He will never advocate anything illegal even though we all know what the deal is here.
There may be some obscure law somewhere that covers this situation but that doesn't make it a case with any real jury appeal. They take this stuff into consideration when deciding to prosecute cases with their limited resources.
This type of situation is what is legally classified as "chicken sh&t" and the DA would quickly tell you he/she cannot make chicken salad out of chicken sh&t.
As an example, I assisted a state investigator with a sting operation where they caught the bad guys making and selling unpasturized cheese - a health risk which is what prompted strict laws against such. When the air tight case was brought in for filing, the guy got laughed out of the DA's office.
For this situation to have any real merit as a crime, you would need to get this guy to admit he is selling this tag with the intent to aid a thief in the theft of a vehicle.
The more realistic situation is to catch the person who buys it in a VIN swap fraud or car theft situation.
And I can't say for sure in every state, but in my state, these people would be looking at some serious probation out of this. Nothing more
I hate thievery more than anyone but in this case, this guy is probably gonna get away with it until he crosses the wrong guy and gets himself shot.
That's my two cents worth.
