Onoes
Trakanon Raider
So, I made pretty much every fucking mistake possible with this, and now that I'm feeling totally and thoroughly fucked, what do I do?
My car is a giant piece of crap. I am not rich, so I deal with giant piece of crap. I also work 60 miles from home, so I don't really want to buy a new car that is dead by the time I have it paid off. Now, I knew this day was coming, and I started saving money. I saved and saved, and saved some more, I manage to save up almost 10,000 dollars, which is huge for me. I've never had more than a few hundred dollars at a time. It's finally time that I have to get a new car, the old one is just on its last legs.
I first go to dealerships. I am hoping to get a car for cash, I am sorely disappointed by prices. I can afford plenty of cars with 120,000+ miles on them, but none with fewer. I don't want a truck or suv or anything fancy, just a working car in good shape with low miles.
I next turn to craigslist. I make a dozen or so calls over a week, and in every case its either a salvage title, or some other crazy shit they neglected to mention. Finally I find a car in Vegas, which is just over an hour away from me. It's a 2009 Ford Focus SE, with 65k miles for 9,000. I check bluebook and its like 9,200. I call two people I know with a 2008 and a 2010 ford focus and they both love the car. I text the owner and she assures me the car is immaculate. I offer 8,100, 10% less than they are asking. She says they will take 8,300 if its cash. I tell her I'm on my way.
Here is where I become very stupid.
I ask to meet me at a bank, because I don't want to get shot. She agree's. I bring my wife, a friend, and my two kids. When I arrive in Vegas I text her, and she asks if we can meet her in a parking lot near house, assuring me its a nice area and everything. I say sure and show up there. I text and let her know. She says she is on her way. Two sketchy dudes show up in her car and pop the hood, saying she is on her way. First thing I notice is a large crack in the window. Annoying but, not the end of the world. I open the door and it reeks of smoke, in addition to the carpet being a little torn up, but otherwise, its fine. Not immaculate, but I understood I'm trying to budget shop, so there it is.
My friend watches my kids while my wife and I test drive it. It runs fine. I show back up and she is there, I say I will take it. She informs me that there is one small issue. She needed some money and had to put a lien on the car, which is why she had us meet her there, because we were parked in front of the lien place (TitleMax). Again, I am dumb and say ok. We go in and she tells the guy working there what is going on. He informs us that while he has requested the title from the DMV, its not there yet. He assures me that he can overnight it to me as soon as it arrives though. I express my concern she could just call in and say "Ohh scratch that, just give it to me when it shows up." He again assures me that can not happen, he's a witness to the transaction, and the manager, and yeah, no worries. So I agree, he takes all my info down, she takes the money and counts it on the table, paying him. They give me the keys and ask if I can mail the plates back to them. I say yes, get their address, and head home.
I have the car checked out Monday and it has issues with its airbag systems, all the computers need to be replaced, and it will cost $3,297 (This is from the Ford Dealership, I would guess I could find that cheaper). Annoying, but my own fault and not really relevant to the rest of the story.
So, last wed she texts me and asks for her plates. I tell her that I was planning on sending the plates when I got the title. She send a big long "You better send the plates or I will report it stolen." string of texts. This seems crazy to me out of the blue, but I respond with "How about this, could you email me a bill of sale at yadayada and that way I just have something from you saying I own the car, and I will mail your plates back to you." She refuses and says I can have a bill of sale after she gets her plates. At this point I'm feeling pretty uncomfortable so I call my brother in law, who is a detective, explain the whole situation, and and advice. He tells me to just cut off communication with her, either I get the title and can send her the plates if I feel like it (I would, I'm not a dick), or she reports it stolen, and the texts I have show she is lying and she gets in trouble.
So, nothing happens for a few days, and then on Tuesday of this week she sends a text saying "I'm reporting the car stolen today". I ignore it, but call the TitleMax place anyway, explain what is going on, and have the manager email me a little testimony thing , just so I had something with the texts in case the police did show up. This morning, she sent me a text cussing me out and saying she would find me and there would be hell to pay. I ignored it. An hour later I get a text from another number, explaining that this is the boyfriend, and they have been super nice about the whole thing, but I was really in for some shit if he is not holding those plates tomorrow. I sent him a string of texts explaining that I will be sending the plates the second I get the title, but her constant threats made me call the police asking what I should do, and they informed me that I should just ignore her. So again, sorry, you will have the plates the second I have the title.
Then I get a call from the manager of TitleMax around noon. The title came in, but she is telling him not to send it. He told her he had to and she hung up on him. A bit later his boss called him to say he was not to send me the title. He asks if I can call her and figure this out because he is worried he is going to lose his job now, and wants nothing to do with any of this.
I call her and the boyfriend answers. He screams and yells at me, won't let me talk at all (I'm 100% calm and collected), and finally yells that if he doesn't have a conformation number in his hand that the plates have been shipped by 3pm today, he is reporting it stolen. He then hangs up.
I call TitleMax back and the guy there tells me I should call Vegas PD and tell them I've been the victim of fraud.
I call, explain the situation, and they transfer me to the fraud detective. I get a machine, I leave a message.
She just called me back. I explain the situation. She tells me that I can call a civil attorney, but its really not fraud. I ask how its not fraud, and she says because I have no proof I bought the car. I tell her I have witnesses, plus the receipt for paying it out of lien, plus all the texts where she very clearly says she sold me the car. The officer tells me none of that is evidence, sure, they may look at it in civil court, but its not criminal. I'm pretty much dumbfounded. She then tells me that if she reports it stolen, I may very well be charged with that, if they find I have the car. I again say "Even with the texts and everything?" and she says "Yeah, you have to be prepared to face charges if they pursue that, but I bhet they won't.". I say, "Ok, so the police can do nothing here?" and she says "Nope, its not our problem, you can either go talk to a civil attorney, or you can give her back her car and just write the $8,300 off as a loss, I'm not givging you advice, I can't do that, but those are your options.".
So. yeah. I'm feeling pretty god damned fucked right now.
And yes, I understand that there were like 20 red flags that should have made me go "fuuuuuuuck this", but since I have no way to go back in time and kick myself in the ass, I'm trying to figure out how to deal with the situation.
Man it's been a terrible day.
My car is a giant piece of crap. I am not rich, so I deal with giant piece of crap. I also work 60 miles from home, so I don't really want to buy a new car that is dead by the time I have it paid off. Now, I knew this day was coming, and I started saving money. I saved and saved, and saved some more, I manage to save up almost 10,000 dollars, which is huge for me. I've never had more than a few hundred dollars at a time. It's finally time that I have to get a new car, the old one is just on its last legs.
I first go to dealerships. I am hoping to get a car for cash, I am sorely disappointed by prices. I can afford plenty of cars with 120,000+ miles on them, but none with fewer. I don't want a truck or suv or anything fancy, just a working car in good shape with low miles.
I next turn to craigslist. I make a dozen or so calls over a week, and in every case its either a salvage title, or some other crazy shit they neglected to mention. Finally I find a car in Vegas, which is just over an hour away from me. It's a 2009 Ford Focus SE, with 65k miles for 9,000. I check bluebook and its like 9,200. I call two people I know with a 2008 and a 2010 ford focus and they both love the car. I text the owner and she assures me the car is immaculate. I offer 8,100, 10% less than they are asking. She says they will take 8,300 if its cash. I tell her I'm on my way.
Here is where I become very stupid.
I ask to meet me at a bank, because I don't want to get shot. She agree's. I bring my wife, a friend, and my two kids. When I arrive in Vegas I text her, and she asks if we can meet her in a parking lot near house, assuring me its a nice area and everything. I say sure and show up there. I text and let her know. She says she is on her way. Two sketchy dudes show up in her car and pop the hood, saying she is on her way. First thing I notice is a large crack in the window. Annoying but, not the end of the world. I open the door and it reeks of smoke, in addition to the carpet being a little torn up, but otherwise, its fine. Not immaculate, but I understood I'm trying to budget shop, so there it is.
My friend watches my kids while my wife and I test drive it. It runs fine. I show back up and she is there, I say I will take it. She informs me that there is one small issue. She needed some money and had to put a lien on the car, which is why she had us meet her there, because we were parked in front of the lien place (TitleMax). Again, I am dumb and say ok. We go in and she tells the guy working there what is going on. He informs us that while he has requested the title from the DMV, its not there yet. He assures me that he can overnight it to me as soon as it arrives though. I express my concern she could just call in and say "Ohh scratch that, just give it to me when it shows up." He again assures me that can not happen, he's a witness to the transaction, and the manager, and yeah, no worries. So I agree, he takes all my info down, she takes the money and counts it on the table, paying him. They give me the keys and ask if I can mail the plates back to them. I say yes, get their address, and head home.
I have the car checked out Monday and it has issues with its airbag systems, all the computers need to be replaced, and it will cost $3,297 (This is from the Ford Dealership, I would guess I could find that cheaper). Annoying, but my own fault and not really relevant to the rest of the story.
So, last wed she texts me and asks for her plates. I tell her that I was planning on sending the plates when I got the title. She send a big long "You better send the plates or I will report it stolen." string of texts. This seems crazy to me out of the blue, but I respond with "How about this, could you email me a bill of sale at yadayada and that way I just have something from you saying I own the car, and I will mail your plates back to you." She refuses and says I can have a bill of sale after she gets her plates. At this point I'm feeling pretty uncomfortable so I call my brother in law, who is a detective, explain the whole situation, and and advice. He tells me to just cut off communication with her, either I get the title and can send her the plates if I feel like it (I would, I'm not a dick), or she reports it stolen, and the texts I have show she is lying and she gets in trouble.
So, nothing happens for a few days, and then on Tuesday of this week she sends a text saying "I'm reporting the car stolen today". I ignore it, but call the TitleMax place anyway, explain what is going on, and have the manager email me a little testimony thing , just so I had something with the texts in case the police did show up. This morning, she sent me a text cussing me out and saying she would find me and there would be hell to pay. I ignored it. An hour later I get a text from another number, explaining that this is the boyfriend, and they have been super nice about the whole thing, but I was really in for some shit if he is not holding those plates tomorrow. I sent him a string of texts explaining that I will be sending the plates the second I get the title, but her constant threats made me call the police asking what I should do, and they informed me that I should just ignore her. So again, sorry, you will have the plates the second I have the title.
Then I get a call from the manager of TitleMax around noon. The title came in, but she is telling him not to send it. He told her he had to and she hung up on him. A bit later his boss called him to say he was not to send me the title. He asks if I can call her and figure this out because he is worried he is going to lose his job now, and wants nothing to do with any of this.
I call her and the boyfriend answers. He screams and yells at me, won't let me talk at all (I'm 100% calm and collected), and finally yells that if he doesn't have a conformation number in his hand that the plates have been shipped by 3pm today, he is reporting it stolen. He then hangs up.
I call TitleMax back and the guy there tells me I should call Vegas PD and tell them I've been the victim of fraud.
I call, explain the situation, and they transfer me to the fraud detective. I get a machine, I leave a message.
She just called me back. I explain the situation. She tells me that I can call a civil attorney, but its really not fraud. I ask how its not fraud, and she says because I have no proof I bought the car. I tell her I have witnesses, plus the receipt for paying it out of lien, plus all the texts where she very clearly says she sold me the car. The officer tells me none of that is evidence, sure, they may look at it in civil court, but its not criminal. I'm pretty much dumbfounded. She then tells me that if she reports it stolen, I may very well be charged with that, if they find I have the car. I again say "Even with the texts and everything?" and she says "Yeah, you have to be prepared to face charges if they pursue that, but I bhet they won't.". I say, "Ok, so the police can do nothing here?" and she says "Nope, its not our problem, you can either go talk to a civil attorney, or you can give her back her car and just write the $8,300 off as a loss, I'm not givging you advice, I can't do that, but those are your options.".
So. yeah. I'm feeling pretty god damned fucked right now.
And yes, I understand that there were like 20 red flags that should have made me go "fuuuuuuuck this", but since I have no way to go back in time and kick myself in the ass, I'm trying to figure out how to deal with the situation.
Man it's been a terrible day.