The boss men at Legacy Ford Lincoln Mercury Toyota of Scottsbluff, Nebraska, have arranged a personal economic stimulus program; by running off with 81 cars and trucks valued at over $2.5 million (before or after rebates?). Lacking a “Tales from the Dark Side” section, the AP put the story out as auto industry news. The missing Fords were trucked away on Saturday but the Toyotas had to wait their turn until Monday. By Wednesday, some of the missing vehicles already started popping up at auctions in Utah and Arizona. Floorplan banker Toyota Financial said: “If the dealer and the cars go missing there’s an issue.” Ya think? “Arrest warrants had been issued for owner Allen Patch, controller Rachel Fait and general manager Rick Covello, who are wanted on suspicion of theft.” Up until now, none of these clowns had an arrest record. Oddly enough, Legacy so far remains open for business. Personally I wouldn’t leave my ride there for service unless I wanted it to disappear. Meanwhile, rumors of a movie deal starring Robin Williams, Chevy Chase and Al Pacino run rampant.
81 cars in three days? And no one noticed? Wasn’t that a bruckheimer remake with Nicolas Cage?
Everyone must have thought they had a really kick ass week in the sales department. Or maybe their BOGOF promo was finally working….
Sounds like a scene from Fargo!
We need a new acronym: SOSEA — Steal One, Steal ‘Em All
johnnye stole my thunder, ya.
If they were smart the would have put them in overseas bound shipping containers.
I had friend from high school was worked as a skip tracer for a Repo outfit. They once got a case of someone who walked into a Porsche dealer, 100% financed 6 cars and then disappeared.
But they were stealing North American Fords – where could they possibly send them?
Under a dealer floorplan agreement the dealership has the right to auction the cars just so long as the floorplan is paid off as the cars are sold. Could be legitimate business or it could be an attempt to defraud Toyota Financial, the story doesn’t give enough detail to tell. Don’t really understand why arrest warrants were issued so quickly unless Toyota Financial could prove some of the cars were sold and they weren’t paid but it doesn’t seem that enough time had elapsed to prove that. Of course the fact that the three employees desks were cleaned out does give shall we say a less than desireable appearance.
‘Ford Lincoln Mercury Toyota’
… is this a game of “find the one that does not fit with the others?”
You need Oldsmobiles to remark “Fargo” properly. You cannot use a Mustang as KITT either. I’m sorry to inform you!
sound of Bernie Madoff clapping
They may still be in business, but their online inventory looks a little low.
@RedStapler – come on, man! you can;t start a story like that without finishing it. did they find the guy?
AFAIK they never did find the cars.
Update: The execs in question have been arrested.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090312/ap_on_re_us/missing_cars_15
Some of the missing vehicles have been found:
“About two dozen vehicles missing from the dealership were traced to Salt Lake City, and at least 16 of those had been sold at an auto auction. Six others were found at the Scottsbluff airport, one was found at a Wal-Mart parking lot in Evanston, Wyo., and the FBI found some of the other vehicles in Las Vegas.”
I have to agree with mtymsi simple because this makes zero sense from a criminal enterprise perspective. The way they did it, the risk of being caught is extremely high, and the payout low.
$2.5m would be the total of the MSRP’s. If they were stolen and fenced then the actual cash paid would less, lets say a generous 70% of MSRP. That drops the cash earned to $1.75m, divided 3 ways is $583,333 each, just a bit over half a million each, at best.
Now these are executives. They could earn that much money legitimately over 5 years, if not sooner. You would have to pay me one hell of a lot more than 1/2 a million to risk prison. On the other hand, prisons are full of criminals who had done dumber things for far less money.
My gut tells me that the dealership is having a severe cash flow problem and they had to raise cash, fast. So they decided to start selling inventory at auctions. That was their desperate plan to pay the bills this month.