The story of my stolen truck.

[GoldDot40]

Shoot, that'll buff out.
I prefer a certified cashier's check....which I can then call the issuing bank and verify the authenticity of the check.

 

[lbzdually]

Shoot, that'll buff out.
I prefer a certified cashier's check....which I can then call the issuing bank and verify the authenticity of the check.

Actually there have been scams where the guy's girlfriend poses as a bank employee and "verifies" the check when you call. Scary how hard thieves work to steal your stuff.

 

[NE GA Pappy]

no good anymore.......scum now take real 5's 10's and 20's and ''wash'' them.....they then re-print 100's on them.....pen's won't work.....hold the bill up to a light and check watermark....only sure way.....

http://www.counterfeitforensics.com/public/Counterfeits_Made_with_Bleached_US_Currency.cfm

there are some 100's floating around Commerce now even the banks are having a hard time catching. They are getting real good at faking them. My brother has a business close to the outlet malls, and the po-po is telling them to all beware of anyone paying with 100's right now.

Pappy

 

[westcobbdog]

I don't think I've ever told the story of my truck that got stolen in March of 2009 on here. It was an eye-opening experience and is still not over in regards to the people who did bad things and their punishment.

It all started in November of 2008 when my uncle was diagnosed with liver cancer. They told him he had 6 months to live, but they were wrong, he died on December 5th. In January my dad offered to sell me my late uncle's truck, a 2006 Crew Chevrolet 4wd dually with 29k miles on it. I had a 2006 dually that was 2wd so I had to sell it first.

I listed the truck on Autotrader in late Feb 2009. I got several calls on it with people interested, but no one ever brought me the money. On March 17th, a guy from Birmingham that called himself Robert Brown called me to say he was very interested. I had it priced to sell at 23,500 with a book value of 25,000. He tried to get the price down, but I held firm. He finally decided he wanted it at 23,500. I had the truck financed through GMAC, so I called them and asked them how the payoff process worked. They told me I would pay off the truck through JP Morgan Chase. I got the guys bank account info then used it to "pay off" the truck on the 17th. I told them repeatedly that this was not my account and to please make sure the money was there. After that, I called the guy to tell him that I gave them the payment info. I told I couldn't bring him the truck until GMAC told me it was paid off.

I checked the next day on it and the payment had still not cleared. On the morning of the 19th, I called and they told me the truck had in fact been paid off. They told me they would be mailing me a clear title within 10 days along with a check for $4700 because I only owed 18,700 on the truck. After getting confirmation, that the truck was paid off, I delivered the truck to the guy in Alabama and met him roughly halfway in Collinsville, Al. He looked the truck over and we exchanged a bill of sale.

In two days, I got a letter thanking me for paying my truck off. In about 4 more days, I got a clear title, which I planned on Fed-Ex'ing to the guy the next day. The next day, I went to get the mail and in the mail was a letter from GMAC. This was right at 10 days after the initial payment. What I read absolutely just about made me pass out. It said "the payment could not be processed." I called GMAC and they said the payment did not go through, and to please schedule another payment to keep my loan current. I jumped all over the lady from the Phillipines and told them my truck had been stolen because of them and their inability to properly verify the funds were there. They told me to call the guy and get him to pay, but he was long gone and his prepaid cell was turned off. At this point I knew my truck was stolen and started calling the police and my insurance company. I had to drive to Collinsville to file the report since that is where the exchange took place.

After going back and forth with State Farm for few weeks, the informed they would pay the claim on my truck, because of little clause in our policy that stated "no claim will be paid as the result of a sales agreement, real or implied." So if you get scammed, you are out of luck with State Farm.

So I call GMAc and explain to them, my insurance will not be paying the truck and that I can't either, since the truck was stolen as a result of their failure to make sure the payment was good. That is when they started calling me night and day, trying to get me to just make a payment, saying they would not put anything negative on my credit
if I did. Truth was, they already had put late payments on my credit and were sending me Dunn letters, in addition to the calls. Finally I got a lawyer to deal with them, and they sued me less that 45 ways after the fact.

Truth be told, I jumped for joy when the deputy brought me the papers. GMAC could have harrassed me for years fromt he safety of their headquarters and I ould have had to go there out of state to sue them. By suing me here in Murray County, I got to sue them back about how they treated me and acted in bad faith and negligently in not making sure the payment was good. The lawyers for GMAC and me went back and forth for months.

In February of 2010, i got a call from the Collinsville police dept to say my truck had been located, burned on the lot of dealership in Birmingham. Turns out Robert Brown (last name was actually Hall) traded my truck in on another vehicle in June of 2009 and it sat on this dealer's lot until one night it was moved from a secure lot and that night the truck mysteriously burned. After it burned, the police ran the VIN and found out it was stolen and got in touch with me. The police used the write-up sheet to catch Robert Hall, so there was no doubt the dealership knew the truck was stolen at that point.

After going back and forth with GMAC, they decided I could go get the truck and get any salvagable parts off it. I showed up at the dealership and the truck was gone. I called the police and an officer actually lead me to try and find it. Turns out the dealership got the theif, Robert Hall, to go get a abandoned title in his name and give it to the dealership so they could collect insurance on my truck. They collected over $30,000 on a truck they only paid $8500 for. That's right they bought a $20,000 truck and only paid 8500 for it, then collected insurance on it, committing insurance fraud.

As I later found out, they actually learned the truck was stolen before the night it was moved and burned. Are you starting to get the picture yet?

Well, in June of last year we finally went to trial with GMAC and mopped the floor with them. They had to take anything negative off my credit and pay me all atty fees I had accumulated and some for damages also. So that part is taken care of. So is the part of Robert Hall, he has 2 years in prison for felony theft by taking.

The only thing left is the crooked dealer. So the past few years of my life have been rough dealing with all this stuff and it still isn't over. There is a lot more I know about what the dealer did that I can't say right now because I plan on suing the living snot out of them, unless they want to settle it out of court.

Geez that reads like a mystery novel. You got reamed bad by those crooks. I would call Roy Barnes law firm in Marietta, engage ol' Roy and you will defintely be getting you the last laugh! Good Luck. I think you need a Lawyer to connect the dots and bring courtroom drama to this case.

 

[Big Jeep Wrangler]

Crazy what some people will do.

 

[DDD]

I meet them at their bank. Sold a boat to a guy from North Carolina. Met him at his bank in South Carolina, they did everything... notarizing, copies, cash... everything.

Cash is king. My dad always said, if you got cash in your hand, you got a winner.

 

[elfiii]

In two days, I got a letter thanking me for paying my truck off. In about 4 more days, I got a clear title,

And that's where you nailed them dead to rights.

 

[GoldDot40]

Actually there have been scams where the guy's girlfriend poses as a bank employee and "verifies" the check when you call. Scary how hard thieves work to steal your stuff.

Naw, I don't call the number on the check (usually there's not even a phone number printed on them). I look up the bank's info on my smart phone...and call them with the contact info that I look up. I also usually will not do 'business' with anyone from another state. Not worth the headache....or potential of one.

 

[lbzdually]

And that's where you nailed them dead to rights.

Yep and if they would have just dropped it, I would have chalked up it up as a loss and that would have been it for them. But they were dumb and decided to go after me instead of the crook or truck. The dealer where the truck sat for 7 months was insured by GMAC, so they had a floor plan of dealer inventory. All they had to do was look for my truck and they could have found it within 3 or 4 months of it being stolen with only 1000 more miles on it and still in pristine condition.

 

[ryanh487]

Certified funds or cash only for all purchases, no personal checks ever. Hope you win your battle though.