Bought GS500F without title, VIN scratched off, but clean VIN

[rbhatia]

Let me preface this by saying, yes I know this was an extremely stupid decision and I'm an idiot. I bought it on a whim because I did some research and apparently these are great bikes for first-time riders.

I recently bought a 2004 GS500F for about $750. The VIN was scratched off and it was such a nice looking bike at the time I didn't even bother checking for that. The VIN the previous owner (? I don't know if it was stolen or not so no clue wtf to even call him) gave me was run on several sites and I even had my local police dept. run it for me - it came back clean, which means it was either stolen in another state and brought here (doubtful) or it was never stolen. The bike also didn't have a license plate.

I live in North Carolina so in order to have the bike registered under my name and get a title for it, I need to fix it up enough to get it to run (which isn't a problem, just needs a new battery and chain/sprocket set) and then it needs to pass a safety inspection. Needless to say, a rubbed off VIN is a huge red flag.

What do?

[chris900f]

Hey look, it wasn't that dumb of a decision, for $750, at very worst you could recoup your money by parting out the machine.

I have a 2005 F, there are 2 VIN ID locations: there is an ID plate on the frame left side (while sittiing on bike)
near the front of the gas tank that could easily be removed.

There is also stamped-in number on the right side of the steering head--that one would need to be ground off with a file or grinder.
My logic is that if someone went to the trouble of grinding the frame stamp; then it's probably stolen.

post a pic if you can.

[Sporty]

The stamped numbers in the frame at the steering heard (that Chris900f wrote of) are the important ones that matter.
If the numbers are intact visible, and check out, you should be good.

Is NC a title state?