If the fellow is consistent and well informed and well connected, he surely can. My grandfather once bought a car, that turned out to be a stolen one. We returned the car to the rightful owner and applied in court for our refund. After 6 months of proper khuwari, court ordered each fellow from whose hand the car had passed to pay us a certain sum and the actual theif was to pay us 50% of the car's worth. If I am not wrong, we recovered 95% of the amount Alhamdolillah