How stupid do you have to be to try and steal a car off a lot? And not get caught. Well, people still try. This couple messed with the wrong dealership owner to steal from. From needy wholesome families to greedy heartless deadbeats, these parents really didn’t think this through. And no matter how much work it would be, the owner was going to find them and get that vehicle back. Content edited for clarity.
Count The Mistakes
“I am a part of a small family-owned type used car dealership. We have maybe 50 cars on the lot at any time and our main business is sub-prime or people with less-than-perfect credit. We truly want to help the people that can’t afford/have the credit to buy from a new car dealership. We’re actually very liked in our small community.
Recently I had these customers, let’s call her ‘wife’ and him ‘husband’ (they’re in their early 20’s). They came into my store and I liked them. They seemed like a nice young couple trying to start their lives out. They had two very sweet little girls and you could tell they could really use a break. The couple had made some mistakes in their early lives and had less-than-perfect credit. I coached them on how to improve their credit and they seemed sincerely interested in fixing it. So, I busted my ass to get them a loan, with the wife’s mother consigning, on a nice third-row SUV. The wife was literally crying, hugging me because every other dealer turned them down. Now, they were a little short on the down payment so I took a check for the balance and we agreed I’d cash it on his next payday (mistake number one). This was pretty common in this line of work.
I forgot about them until the next week when I dropped the check at the bank along with other deposits. Not too long after, I received a notice that the check had bounced. A couple of NSF(non-sufficient funds) fees were attached for me and the check came back. It was a dollar amount considered a first-degree misdemeanor in our state, just under a felony. I reached out to the wife to see what happened and how we could make arrangements to get this taken care of. The last thing I wanted to do was go after a young couple with two small kids.
At first, the wife was a little shocked and insisted the funds were pulled from their account and I show them the picture of the NSF check. She seemed to understand and told me they could pay half in two weeks when she would be paid again and in another two weeks pay the other half. I agreed to this and just took them at their word (mistake two).
The Run-Around
A couple of weeks rolled around and I didn’t hear from the wife or husband and thought I had been taken for a ride. They were ignoring my calls, texts, etc.; you get the point. Then I got a call from the bank and come to find out they hadn’t made their first payment either.
Now with this particular bank, if the customer did not make their first payment we would have to, ‘buy back’ the deal. Basically, we have to give the bank the money they sent us for the loan. After blowing up both the wife and husband’s phones and Facebook, they finally called me back. I got the sob story, ‘He got let go from his job and he just started a new one and mom was going to help them get back on their feet.’
I went through hell and high water with the bank to make a deal that if they made their payment they would keep the loan. This was risky because I was still on the hook if they missed any of the next three payments. The wife also told me they’d make payments to me on the bounced check once he started getting paychecks. So I agreed, they made their payment to the bank, and I went about my life. Until the next month came around.
Blocked But Not Stopped
I got an email from the bank saying the wife didn’t make the next month’s payment and wouldn’t answer their calls. At this point, I was furious and ready to just go get their vehicle. They wouldn’t answer any of my calls. I decided to call the co-signer, the wife’s mom. She scrounged everything in her social security paycheck to help try to make the payment for them, but came up short. The wife and husband had told her they’d cover the balance, but of course, they hadn’t paid.
The bank told me the deal was a buyback now and we needed the money back for the loan within seven days. Now the only way I could pay back their loan is if my floor plan (basically a giant credit card we buy cars on) got pictures of the car in my possession.
I tried everything again. I called, emailed, and even messaged them on Facebook to get ahold of both the wife and husband. Those fuckers had me blocked on everything. They were basically stealing the vehicle without paying. They even blocked the mom who had been trying to help them get this handled. Yes, they screwed over their own mother in this ordeal. I just wanted the vehicle back so I could move on with life.
So I decided pro-revenge was my only option.
Sherlock Holmes
I began by dropping the check off at the local prosecutor. They were delighted to file charges against the couple. I did some skip tracing, things like calling family members, all of which were more than happy to help. Come to find out the husband had had seven jobs in only four months and had burned every single family member with money he and his wife had borrowed.
With a stroke of luck, I found the wife’s father on Facebook. Turned out he had been trying to take custody of the deadbeat wife and husband’s two little girls because of how they treated them. He informed me they were staying at his sister’s house right over the border. You see, we were on the state line of two states(this is important).
It wasn’t hard to decide what to do next. I called up a repo company and even drove the hour myself to go get the vehicle. They had been hiding it in the garage (according to some neighbors and the repo company). It was time for some sleuthing. I did some searching and found out they were both on probation for theft from multiple stores. If only you had seen the smile across my face when I read that. So I found and called Mrs. Probation officer to see if she had a last known address. I then mentioned to her they were currently staying above the state line. I also may have mentioned the bit about how they bounced a very large check to me. It was only right she know they were facing fresh charges in my town and she appreciated the knowledge.
Now while I was up at their house one evening on a mini-stakeout looking for the vehicle, I spoke to one of the neighbors. Apparently, the neighbors hated the couple because they were always yelling at their children and each other. It didn’t take much to convince the neighbor to call me if they saw the vehicle outside.
It took one day. I got the call and sent a very large friend who lived nearby them to go get the vehicle. After many expletives and berating my friend, they handed over the vehicle. But not before finally calling me while he was there and telling me how they were going to sue and blah blah blah.
I’m out quite a bit of money from the ordeal, but here’s the best part. I just found out that by living out of state they violated probation and just got sentenced to 30 days in jail. They also had their ‘video court date'(because they’re currently in jail with the probation violation) with the local judge on the new charges of the bounced check. I got my vehicle back and guess what? The deadbeat wife’s father got custody of the two kids and I made sure the mother wasn’t negatively affected by her daughter’s egregious mistakes.”
