What to do when a shop absconds with your car...

Hey all, I'm not ready to lay bare the facts or details of my situation quite yet, so I'll be as vague as possible. I will be strategically giving the benefit of the doubt to the shop in question, as maybe this is not what it seems. I'm not quite sure how to proceed here; if any of you have any tips/tricks/ideas, I would love to hear them.

So I turned over a disco era italian red car to a local shop last year. The shop had very good reviews. The owner of the shop had a history in town of knowing these cars well; the tech I know at an engine shop in town claims "I've known him for 30 years". When I was at the shop, they had a number of classic italian cars, most of which valued higher than the car I was bringing to them. Nothing spooked my spidey sense.

As the summer turned to fall and winter, I was given updates. I visited the shop. Progress was made. I stood inside the engine bay that had been stripped and repainted. The lower block was back from the rebuild shop. All seemed well.

Around 2 months ago, I started having a hard time getting ahold of either of my contacts at said shop. Radio silence. I have called both contacts every other day or so for weeks on end-no answer, no response. I finally spoke to the landlord of the shop today; turns out, they have vacated. The owner of the building claims multiple people have shown up at the shop asking about their car. At this point, I'm fully spooked, and assuming my vehicle is potentially in a shipping container en route to UAE. He claims he is owed 3 months rent. We agreed that if either of us have any info, we'll update each other.

I'm not quite sure how to proceed. If any of you either A) have a similar story, or B) have any ideas, let me know. I'm not quite ready to hire a P.I., but it seems to be the logical next step. Thanks for the help.

 

Hasn't this become a police matter?

 

Get the PI dude ASAP it might be the difference between seeing the car again and not. Very best of luck with it but, take action asap, what is the worst that could happen, you find the car quickly and get it back for a small cost of a PI

 

Seems to be a civil matter not a police/criminal matter.


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So sorry to hear your car was stolen, the police may know more about it from the other victims.
Never happened to me, but
I bought an F car years ago and the seller told me he had the same happen to a Lamborghini, I think a special version Countach, also a long established shop, in S Cal. Police were not interested, considering it a civil matter. PI tracked the thief to I think Wash State, had opened a new shop, the victim won his civil suit but said he was never able to collect and eventually decided he just needed to move on in life. That is just the story I was told. I hope things go better for you.
At some point you may wish to tap the data base of Fchat world and let all know who has disappeared with your car, car model, VIN etc.


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I think people who close up and steal the assets of others in their care absolutely need to be prosecuted. You don't?

 

If it isn't in the building, report it stolen and be done with it. It is an insurance company problem now.

If you are lucky....depending where you live.....the PD will send out a Social Worker to make sure that you aren't in crisis to take the report.

 

If the shop doesn’t exist, why would at least naming it here do anything bad to future actions?

if anything, maybe someone is close by and knows what happened or can give a lot more insight?

 

I would report it to your insurance company, get a police report, and get the PI involved. It's hard to hide.

 

Thanks for the advice, folks. I appreciate it. I think I'll file a police report this week.

19633500GT: my reticence in airing them out publicly, is the potential of this being due to something like a health issue-what if the owner is in the hospital, or worse? In the interest of getting my car back, I want to be sure before I go the legal/punitive route. (when said aloud, this sounds alot worse than it sounds in my head).

I am in Central Ohio. When I spoke to the owner of the building they used to lease, he said that several customers have showed up at his door looking for their cars, so I know I'm not alone. If anyone else is in a similar boat, please DM me. Last I was there, they had a Diablo, a Testarossa, and a 911 in the shop at the time.

 

Oooohhh. I'm in Powell.

You might get more traction on this issue if you were to post it down in the Ohio section here.

Sure hope that you are not referencing one of C-Bus's Big Three of Evans, NJB, or Studio 47? PM me if I might have hit one.

Thanks - DM

 

Dave80gtsi-check your DM's; I messaged you.

 

Why is Grand Theft Auto not a police matter? Hmm?

 

My daughter got swindled out of $300 by a scammer who never shipped the product my daughter bought and paid for on line. Her friend showed her how to get the meta data from the online picture which showed where the picture was taken (I never knew this was possible) and it was a city across the Bay. Daughter contacted the police in my town, they did the investigation, and referred the case to the police in the other town where the scammer lives. The police shows up at the place, talked to the scammer and her father. Daughter got her money back. The scammer almost went to jail but my daughter did not press charges (good karma, always live your life that way).

For the police to ignore the theft of an $200K automobile (Grand Theft Auto) and claim that the matter is civil (Conversion) is a totally lazy ass way of not doing their jobs. Yes it is their job.

 

Info on the trackers please & is there a monthly subscription fee?

 

If the car has been stolen by the shop, claim on your insurance for theft. A similar thing happened to a friend of mine years ago. He claimed and got paid.

 

I wouldn't be waiting until "this week" to file a police report. I would do that before sundown today. Theft is theft. The longer you wait after you have suspicion or actual knowledge, the more difficult your insurance claim may be. You have a responsibility to mitigate your damages. Sitting around for a while longer won't cut it. Call the police NOW.

 

you need to report it and if it was me I would post the VIN and the name of the shop and town the shop is in .. Ferrari chat is perhaps the largest group of Ferrari enthusiasts in the country if not the world .. use the resources you may learn something quick...

 

Let us assume the 'best case' scenario (I would argue his 'worst' case) - he passed away or in a coma (God forbid.) The assumption would not explain where the cars went, correct?

If he or an associate was in good enough health to move tens of exotic cars, why would they not have been in good enough condition to leave a simple sign, forwarding info, or any other indication of his whereabouts?

Report the car stolen to insurance and police, get money, and move on. Why wait, "this week?" Do it now unless the police department is closed on the weekends? Do not understand the extreme hesitancy on such an egregious set of circumstances.

 

Couldn’t agree more with what Paul and the majority of other members pointed out.

From what you told us, someone stole property from you. If that’s indeed a fact, that your property is unaccounted for and missing for all intents and purposes, money gone and no phone calls are answered, benefit of the doubt doesn’t apply. In fact, there is no doubt.

Honest people show concern when entrusted with someone else’s property.

I’d lawyer up, big time, with a big name.

Kind regards,

Nuno.

 

As far as I'm concerned, if the car is in the shop and you have an argument over work on it, or payment, or if they refuse to give you the car, etc, then its a civil matter. However, if the shop closes, and the guy, and your car vanish, there's nobody to "civilly" go after, then it's clearly a theft and a police/insurance matter.
There was not a disagreement in this case, there was a car and a person/company that vanished, and you are out the car.

 

This is clearly a theft and you need to call the local Police to get the car in the system as stolen. If they were holding onto your car because you hadn’t paid their bill, that’s different.
The fact that they vacated the shop and several other car owners cars are missing too, it’s pretty clear what has happened.
If it all turn out to be a misunderstanding, which I doubt, it’s easy enough to report your car recovered and the Police can close the case.


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UPDATE: so I spent the better part of last night and today bulldogging on this with local authorities. The Delaware county sheriff's office was helpful; they were able to get ahold of the co-owner of the shop. Apparently, since this is not a cut and dry claim of theft, they were not able to file a police report, but did ask for more info(I am gathering paid receipts, records, communications, etc today). The owner of the shop told the sheriff that his employee "should have been in contact with me". She was able to get him on the phone in 1 hour, which I still have not been able to do for 2 months. I DID speak to the employee who had been my main contact throughout this process, who called me this morning. Sob stories from employees aside, the car is apparently in Ohio, and I now have a current address, phone number, and public records for the owner of the property on which the car is(one hour south of Columbus). If there is a silver lining here, that address has a familial tie to the co-owner of said shop. Oh, also, I unpacked a whole can of worms today on said co-owner that didnt exactly set my mind at ease, but did make it easier to deduce what may be going on.

I am now progressing with both carrot and stick. I am arranging all paperwork to file the police report, whilst simultaneously trying to recover the car. There will be a time for me to go full ****ing scorched earth with names, dates, warnings, etc. That time is when I have the car in my garage, or have recovered damages for the lack of said car. I would hate for this to happen to someone else.

 

Glad you have made some progress. There’s nothing like a call from law enforcement to get someone to snap to attention. Stay on it, don’t back down an inch.


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My full sympathies on this situation. I hate it when this happens to good people. Keep up the good work, I would try to cut your losses so to speak. Ask what's owed of the car as of now, and if 'reasonable,' pay it and get your car out of there ASAP. I wouldn't trust these guys with my car one more second.