Bought a car without a vin... Now what?

It makes me wonder. It is not a rare or highly valuable collector car...... so why did someone go to the trouble of prying the VIN off the dash? Is the door sticker still there or has it been peeled off as well?

I would suspect there is more to the story, like it is a stolen car, was involved in a crime (hit and run) is part of insurance fraud, or someone had a stolen car and needed registration so they used the one from your car...... I would be afraid to try and register it as you might just find it is already registered, owned and driven by someone else. Might just be a huge can of worms....