In the case of any such vehicle seized and condemned as aforesaid the court shall order a public sale thereof by the sheriff of the county, notice of which sale shall be given in the same manner as notice is required to be given of the sale of personal property under a writ of fieri facias, the proceeds of such sale to be paid to the county treasurer for the use of the county. In the event that any such vehicle is, when so seized, held and possessed, under a bailment lease or contract and the legal title thereto is in another person, or in the event that any such vehicle is, when so seized, subject to the lien of a chattel mortgage or to a contract of conditional sale, and if the person holding the legal title thereto or holding such chattel mortgage or contract of conditional sale thereon shall prove that the unlawful use for which the same was seized was without his knowledge or consent, then the claim of the bailor for money due under said bailment lease or contract or the claim of the mortgagee or conditional seller for money due under said chattel mortgage or contract of conditional sale shall attach to and be paid out of the funds derived from said sale after payment of costs and the balance distributed as above provided. In case it appears at said hearing that the owner of any such vehicle has not been found within the jurisdiction of the court the sheriff shall give ten (10) days' notice of said sale by registered letter to the person, if any, whose name appears thereon as the manufacturer thereof, together with the manufacturer's number if any appearing thereon.
35 P.S. § 831.4