I don't know exactly how it works, but I had an uncle who had a large boat, and was short around $10,000 on a bill to the yard it was located in. The boat was w

I don't know exactly how it works, but I had an uncle who had a large boat, and was short around $10,000 on a bill to the yard it was located in. The boat was worth around $80,000. He couldn't pay the last bit of the bill (well, $10k worth) and the yard foreclosed on his boat. It ended up being sold for around $40k. I'm not sure if the yard got its $10k and my uncle got $30k, or if the yard got $40k and he got 0. I do know that my (other) uncle owns a car repair business and has the towing contract for the town police department. Whenever they tow abandoned cars, he charges a daily rate. If no one steps forward to pay the bill, at some point he can get the title for the car and own it. You would think people would claim their cars, but in a lot of situations there is evidence in the car (drugs, guns, etc) that the police take and then he ends up with a car on his lot nobody wants to claim. Six months later, he forecloses on it and ends up owning a car. Sometimes it can be a really nice car too. So foreclosures/seizures/liens are not always banks evicting families that are late on their mortgage, I just don't understand all the details.