Yup. The woman at the Washington DMV had never seen the Washington form that I presented, duly signed by the sheriff and notarized, along with supporting evidence that this was an abandoned car.
Later, her concern was that she couldn't find the VIN in the cmputer system, that because Washington had dumped the older numbers that hadn't been active. So her point became "How do we even know that the car was registered in WA?" as if not being registered in WA would change the fact that this was an abandoned car taking up space in this guy's storage unit.
Then it dawned on me that titling a car in WA is expensive, so now I am looking for a clear title to a 63 (or 62) with the body plate. Got one?