Interesting VIN number on 68 Barracuda

I understand all of this, that is illegal to swag vin. BUT I be came friends with a guy in Mass that went trough all this. Long story short. He bought a 72 duster that looked like a 70(he thought) after getting it home and really looking at it noticing it was a 70 340 car. The motor match the body numbers. He did some digging and found the car was race for a while and then put back on the street with 72 dash and vin. He had a mess to deal with. He went to motor vehicle neither car stolen, he had to bring the car to inspection and they looked it over and let him register it as the 72 because had bin registered already. I could not believe they let him do this.