Stolen car...please help

This sounds like something that could of happened to me. I personally have learned a lesson from your horrible experience.

I hate insurance company's! Good Luck!

 

Sorry to hear this Matt. I had a very similar situation, only I was dumber.... it was for less money ($2500) and for a motorcycle. The guy showed up and convinced my father to sign over the title and took the bike - told my dad that he and I had agreed I would wire the money. He left and ended up never paying me. Cops said it was a civil matter. I sued, I won, I got a judgement, he paid $100, then he declared bankruptcy. Tough lesson.

You have two courses of action...

1) Forget the car and go after your insurance for remuneration

2) Get the car back

IMO you ought to pursue both of those avenues, because you only need one of them to work out to be made whole.

If I were you, I would maybe hire a PI to locate the car. I bet they can find it.... they have contacts and I am sure can find the owner of the cell phone. Then you can go to that location and I am sure you will find the car, or will find James. If you find the car, call the cops (don't confront the guy) and tell them you have located your stolen car and need the police there ASAP. Or stake the place out and if/when you see James or his truck, call the cops and get them there ASAP.

Honestly, either this James guy is really good or he's not really a career criminal. Either he was playing you the whole time, knowing you had to go out of town and knew your bank can't check a wire transfer that late, and he played you like a fiddle, OR, he really did intend to buy the car but after he had posession he thought "wow, I have the car, and I didn't even pay!" and figured he had the upper hand. It may be the latter given the fact that you met the guy and he seemed genuinely interested in the car and well intentioned.

At the same time, press your insurance company to process your claim and let them know up front if they deny it you are immediately filing suit, and lawyer up.

Good luck. I feel for you!

 

Matt, during this process, did you ever see any identification (drivers license) from "James"? A mailing address for the bank to send the title once the note was paid? Have you checked the notary stamp to see (if real) who might have done it? Any chance the police could lift a print off of anything that "James" may have handled (bill of sale)?

 

I would call the notary that did the notarized stamp on the document. They are required to see proper id for the person signing the document in their presence. Some of them keep a photocopy, others write down address + phone number. Worth finding out if he/she has James' info or not.

 

The bill of sale applies to the older cars, something like 1978 or older. If you are getting nowhere, you can go to your DMV and file for a lost title. The most recent version of it is the only one good. At least you would have the title & someone would have to forge paperwork. You will get nowhere without a decent lawyer against your insurance co. Don't beat yourself up anymore about it, you just got flat out scammed by a professional, the insurance company will pay (hint hint, who would win that case in court -you vs. insurance co). If you let go, you won't win this one. I like the persistence beats resistance, it's true.

 

I would still try to get his info via the cell phone records while you are waiting for your lawyer......just my 2 cents.....if it were my car I would have called and gone to as many Nextel stores as I could looking for that one person who could help.....

Maybe someone here has a friend at Nextel.....anyone? PM Matt if you do.

 

But you haven't checked to see if it's real or not?? Seriously, check that stamp out and get in contact with the notary ASAP if it's real. Don't ASSUME that it's fake. Check.

 

I would skip on hiring attorneys and hire a private detective to hunt down "James". Get a private detective. I'm telling you, they can have "James" hunted down pretty quick and it will create less headaches for you. When you find out "James" really is and where he lives, etc. THEN you can sick the cops and an attorneys on him. For all you know your car is sitting in his driveway waiting for you to steal it back.

Running around talking to cops, attorneys and insurance companies is just going to be a huge headache. Hire the private detective.

 

Does Nextel have one of those pay as you go programs? If so, would it ever be possible to track the owner of a cell phone if there was no contract associated with the phone number and the user just paid cash for a chunk of minutes.

 

My heart goes out to you Matt, I can totally understand how you're feeling, the same thing almost happened to me a couple of months ago, but I figured it out. I just want to share some thoughts with you.

What you have on your side is the fact that you had a lien on it. This guy isn't that bright. Usually the people who do these car scams look for somebody who's selling a car that's been paid off. It will be the first question they ask, is the title clear. What happened to me was, the guy was going to write me a cashiers check, and I was going to hand him the signed title. I tracked his phone number, it gave me his home address, I even google earthed his ass, made sure I knew everything about him. Everything came out ok, but I was still weary of this out of towner. Where I didn't budge was when it came time to get my money. I said, check clears, you take the car. He said he couldn't stay in town for that long. Hmm.

What a lot of people don't know is that when you deposit a cashiers check, the amount shows up on your balance, doesn't mean you have the funds in the account. By the time the bank finds out it's a bogus check, the guy is gone, you get charged with all the fees, and are liable for that amount!

I told him, come, look at the car, you'll see where I work, where it's parked, but you cannot drive off with the title until the check clears. He folded. I got about 3 more of these scam artists from autotrader. One even from Canada who wanted me to fax him a copy of the title (he wanted to make sure it was clear) and my portion of the bill of sale filled out...YEAH OK!! He was also going to give me a bogus check and run off to Canada.

I know this doesn't help you, but I just wanted to point out again that what you have on your side is the fact it has a lien on it. I don't know what good it's going to do James. Every time I tried selling a car and came across a scammer, it was the same question, was the title clear. Yours wasn't, so how is he supposed to sell it or keep it, expect you to keep making payments so you won't ruin your credit while he tolls around town? Doesn't make any sense, unless he's going to chop it up, but choppers don't go through all this trouble.

If you find a good lawyer, do some legwork and investigating on your own, I'm sure you can find him. The key is that cell phone. Good luck, I'll post more thoughts later if I come up with anything. Just worked a 12 hour shift but felt I had to reply because I feel really bad for you, good luck again my friend, this is really horrible, sorry for your loss.

 

You need an attorney. Plain and simple. There is no way you are equipped to deal with this. The insurance will try to deny it because they think they have "grounds" and the police will not do anything. The car is already on its way to Canada or some far away state where a duplicate or fraudulent title for it will be issued. Most likely a wrecked G35's VIN will be put on and voila, they have a titled car that they can sell. Forget the car. Just report it stolen and make sure the report is done properly so that it can never come back to you as being the thief or scammer who switched the VINs.

 

also try and used crazedlist.org, allows you to search whole groups of cl cities together..., good luck.

 

That's terrible. I don't have any advice to offer, but let's hope the G hasn't already been chopped!

Hope you can get some justice.

 

Get a friend to call him and ask if he has a g for sale.

 

bump

any news???

 

that's why I'm with chubb... they have a reputation of writing checks. IMHO cheap prmiums are useless, if they deny claims... the most important part of insurance is not how low is the premium, but do they pay...

best of luck to you.

 

Get "Dog" the bounty hunter on the case. You have to get that car now. Find out who the bank uses for repo and call them.

 

Wow Matt. I just read this. Sorry to hear of your troubles. But it sounds like you have a good lawyer, I'd listen to what he says. Keep us posted.

Dale

 

Did you ever check the notary stamp?