What with Bernie Madoff and Sir Allen Stanford to buzz about, it's good to keep in mind that the little guys are still at it, chiseling away.
Last month, it was Michigan's embezzling hockey mom, and just last week there was the delighted story of a trio from a Scottsbluff, Nebraska car dealership who allegedly tried to make off with 81 cars that they were trying to resell.
Actually, with all the Ponzi scheme, dollar based shucking-and-jiving scandals, it's kind of refreshing to read about someone trying to make off with something tangible.
Of course, given that the tangible assets were cars, it does leave me kind of scratching my head. What I know about the auto dealership industry could fit quite nicely in a MiniCooper's glove compartment, but there are things like titles and VIN numbers that, if seems to me, would make it somewhat difficult to move merchandise that was heading somewhere other than the chop-shop.
But what do I know?
The owner of Legacy Auto Sales, Allen Patch, has been in the business a long time, and he seemed to think he could get away with it.
Here's the story.
Path and two colleagues, Rachel Fait and Rick Covello - hilariously (given that the name is so closely and currently associated with The Big Three) called "auto execs" in the headline of the Scottsbluff Star Herald article I saw - were no-shows at work one day last week. Their desks were cleaned out, their computers were gone - and so were 81 cars - worth $2.5M. And once the police started poking around, the trio's homes had been emptied out, as well.
By the time the cops caught up with the crew, a bunch of the cars - all owned by Toyota Financing, and not by the dealership itself - had already been sold at auction in Utah. Although Patch et al. didn't actually own the cars, they did have temporary title to them, which enabled them to sell them to the auction house for cash. How they got title will be part of the mystery to be cleared up - at least for me. Folks who know all about things like VIN numbers and the Manheim Auction probably know all this stuff already.
Anyway, most of the auctioned cars have been recovered, as well as a few others, including one found in a WalMart parking lot in Wyoming and an unknown quantity located in Las Vegas. (In this case, what happens in Vegas doesn't stay in Vegas.) One car was being driven by Covello when he turned himself in to Scottsbluff police. Fait and Patch were arrested in Tooele, Utah.
Motivation for the theft is thought to be the financial problems that Patch's Legacy dealerships had gotten themselves into. A local bank has been overseeing operations for the past several months - apparently not so closely that they knew about the ill-gotten titles, or the cars that had been hauled off in the dead of night.
Dealership employees have also told the police that Fait, who was the dealership's controller:
...had been embezzling money from the company. One said Fait had taken over $46,000 from the business and kept a large backpack with cash inside of it.
This, of course, makes it sound like fellow employees might have known that something was amiss - but how does this become common knowledge without getting acted on? I guess the d'uh answer is: if you report something to the boss and he's in cahoots with the embezzler....
Anyway, it's fun to imagine the water cooler gossip about the light-fingered controller.
"Oh, that Rachel, she's always got her hand in the till."
"And you know that big old backpack she lugs around? She opened it up the other day. I thought she was going to take out her running shoes or something, but she just grabbed a big wad of cash."
One of the Utah dealers that Patch was dealing with is sticking by Patch and Fait, who are well known in the Tooele area, where Patch once owned a number of dealerships, and where Fait grew up. Doug Bergener manages Bargain Buggy's.
“I don’t think anyone can prove anything’s illegal at this point,’’ he said. “We’ve known Allen for 15 years and never knew him to do anything underhanded. There’s been no reason not to trust him. He’s always been honest. It’ll all come out in the wash.’’
Those Tooele Bargain Buggy folks are a loyal lot.
In an article, again from the Scottsbluff paper, on the possibility of federal charges against the Scottsbluff Three, Bargain Buggy's President Mike Garrard, who used to work for Patch:
...believes the charges are a result of a giant misunderstanding.
“From everybody I know in this part of the country, there are not too many bad things ever said about Allen Patch,” Garrard said Thursday evening. “He’s a lot smarter than to pawn 81 vehicles and just try to run,” Garrard said. “I just hope people don’t hang him yet. Remember, presumed innocent until found guilty.”
Yessiree, Bob. One of the great things about this country is that your are innocent until found guilty.
But it's also not exactly news that "smart" and "honest" people can go plenty wrong when $$$$$ is concerned.
As Doug Bergener said, "It'll all come out in the wash."
I can hardly wait.
This is really far easier to wrap your head around than the missing billions of Madoff and Stanford.
Grand theft auto, on a really grand scale.
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