Police probably do not care much unless you are in a small town. Insurance has a financial incentive to care.

> They still have to go out, meet the "seller", check the VIN

You do not have to meet the seller to check the VIN of a vehicle sitting on the street.

> But, what if there are a dozen vehicles for sale matching said description.

There might be a few vehicles in an area matching make/model/year. But it is trivial when looking at a photo to filter on further criteria... and once you look at the photo you can observe trim, exterior color, interior color, stickers, inspection sticker, etc, you will have a very high degree of certainty even on a common model.

> white VW Jetta to me. There are 118 in SF bay area right now just on Autotrader

Well yeah, because you only filtered on 2 of the dozen or so attributes that you might know.

Within a whole 500 mi of the bay area there are only 5 white VW Jetta Wagons listed. All you need to know is what year it is, to narrow it down to 2 or 3. If you know the trim, approximate mileage, any visually distinctive feature, etc, you are guaranteed a match. Even if it wasn't a wagon, it is not hard to filter down to a unique vehicle.

> You do not have to meet the seller to check the VIN of a vehicle sitting on the street.

You're assuming the vehicle remains where the photo was taken.

> Well yeah, because you only filtered on 2 of the dozen or so attributes that you might know.

Those were the only attributes that were apparent in the photo. I said I ignored Wagon because that was a cherry picked unique filter. If it wasn't a wagon, your analysis is the same as mine, >100 vehicles in the SF bay area (I only filtered on 100 mile radius). But again, why steal a vehicle and post it for sale in the same city you stole it from? Criminals already move stolen vehicles, this is all but obvious.

Basically, this helps you catch the dumbest of the dumb criminals. Someone that steals a very unique car and posts it for sale in the same area they stole it from and also leaves the car parked in the same place they took the photo. There's also a time element, if they hide the vehicle for a few weeks, then post it for sale it's more likely the initial active investigation has faded and the cops aren't actively hitting refresh on marketplace.

Glad you believe this is useful, I'll continue to disagree - it might have some value but it's usefulness is being exaggerated in the article.