Posted on 03/12/2009 7:06:08 AM PDT by Netizen
SCOTTSBLUFF, Neb. — Three Scottsbluff auto dealership executives are expected to be under arrest by this morning after they packed up their belongings, loaded 81 new vehicles onto trucks and left town.
Scottsbluff police, with help from federal authorities, tracked the trio across the southwestern United States on Wednesday as many of the vehicles were sold at auctions.
Felony theft charges were filed in Scotts Bluff County Court on Wednesday against Legacy Auto Sales owner Allen Patch and two of his senior managers: comptroller Rachel Fait, 37, and general manager Rick Covello, 53.
Detectives located Patch, 52, at his attorney's office in Tooele County, Utah, and were waiting to arrest him. Scottsbluff Police Capt. Kevin Spencer said he had not been arrested as of 8:30 p.m. CDT.
Fait was arrested in Tooele County earlier Wednesday. Covello is expected to turn himself in to Scottsbluff authorities today.
According to police, 81 new Ford and Toyota vehicles were loaded onto auto transport trailers from the dealership over the weekend and Monday evening. Scotts Bluff Deputy County Attorney John Childress said the vehicles, among them sedans to pickups, are valued at more than $2.5 million.
According to court documents, plans to title and sell the vehicles at auto auctions were in the works for weeks.
-snip
According to police, dealership employees converted manufacturer documents to ownership titles at the Scotts Bluff County Clerk's Office on Feb. 26 and 27 and then Thursday, Friday and Monday.
It is not unusual for a car dealership to obtain vehicle titles, Spencer said, but in this case, "the cars weren't theirs to sell because they were owned by a Toyota financing company."
-snip
more at link
(Excerpt) Read more at omaha.com ...
Too bad that picture doesn’t show a mostly empty lot behind him. It reminds me of Baghdad Bob.
I'm still looking for a photo of Fait, so we can dispense instant Justice.
"Miranda Cervantes, the dealership's title manager, told the Scottsbluff Star-Herald she returned to work Tuesday after a day off and found the lot was virtually empty. She said the desks of Patch, Fait and Covello had been cleaned out."
According to the arrest affidavit, Joseph Carlson, a representative of Toyota Financial Services based in Overland Park, Kan., told police that Toyota owned all the cars, having lent the dealership "millions of dollars in operating expenses." Carlson told police there was no reason to convert car documents to ownership titles except to "convert them (the vehicles) to cash."
Childress, the deputy county attorney, said the transportation company based in Utah appears to have been another victim and was not knowingly involved. He said the company had been paid with a fraudulent cashier's check. An arrest affidavit said the company had been paid $18,000 and had been cooperating in locating the vehicles.
As a retired veteran of the car business, it wouldn't surprise me to discover that the female controller (Fait) had a little something going with the dealership owner (Patch) if you know what I mean
From post #17
The document said in December there was a lot of turmoil between Patch, Fait and Covello and the employee heard Patch and Covello talk about Fait taking money. The employee said the three had a meeting and afterwards they were all getting along and Patch said Fait would be staying to close out the books.
I think the woman was confronted about the missing money and they ended up coming up with this car theft scheme.
From the article
Miranda Cervantes, an employee at Legacy Auto Sales, said employees arrived Tuesday morning and found most of the cars missing from the lot. The desks used by Patch, Fait and Covello had been emptied, and their computers had been taken.
Police found similar circumstances at the trio's homes. Spencer said police went to the home of Fait and a home shared by Patch and Covello. It appeared that most of their belongings had been removed, Spencer said, and both homes were posted for sale.
The men lived together. (not that there's anything wrong with that - just saying)
"According to an arrest affidavit, two employees told police that Fait was suspected of embezzling money from the company. One said Fait had taken more than $46,000 from the business and kept a large backpack filled with cash."
I wonder if giving Cervantes the day off was part of the plan? Giving them an extra day.
http://www.examiner.com/a-1900061~Police_find_3_Neb__execs_in_missing_car_case.html
OMAHA, Neb. (Map, News) - Police have located three missing executives from a Scottsbluff car dealership where 81 new vehicles worth roughly $2.5 million vanished, and at least one of the three has been arrested.
Scottsbluff Police Chief Kevin Spencer told KNEB radio that Legacy Auto Sales controller Rachel Fait had been arrested in Tooele County, Utah.
Spencer says the dealership’s owner, Allen Patch, had been contacted through his lawyer in Utah. The dealership’s general manager, Rick Covello, called police Wednesday afternoon from out of state and arranged to turn himself in.
About two dozen missing vehicles were traced to Salt Lake City. Six others were found at the Scottsbluff airport, and the FBI found some of the other vehicles in Las Vegas.
Patch had financial problems, too, so it might not have been too hard for her to talk him into it.
Marge Gunderson: [reporting over her police radio] There’s the car! There’s the car!
Lou: What car?
Marge Gunderson: My car, my car! Tan Ciera, tan Ciera!
“the cars weren’t theirs to sell because they were owned by a Toyota financing company.”
So, what DOES a car dealer do with the cars???? I thought they sold them.
Hank
Riley Diefenbach KNEW something funny was going on.
If you go and read the whole article, it talks about the illegal paperwork they pulled off to try and make the sales look legit.
Thanks for posting the update. I saw there was something on foxnews.com this morning about it, too. Do you think the three planned to try to sell the cars quickly and flee to Mexico? They must have had a step 2 or plan B, it seems. Quite a strange story, all around.
I think they planned to go someplace, since they had their homes for sale.
All those vehicles and not one had a LowJack type tracking device on it??? There is no reason there should be any vehicle theft today with this technology available.
This sounds like the scam they run here in Taxifornia. You trade your car in and they never send the paperwork to DMV. The vehicle is often sold many times with the 1st owner being on the hock for paying for both vehicles. Bam there goes your credit.
Hopefully, someone will make a tv movie of this.
Then we can enjoy it and have some good laughs.
Due to her personal aging A$$ets, Fait came up with a marketing plan adapted from Bernie Maddoff and Citibank.
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