Davon Hood saw the car at auction. “The car was inoperable. Airbags deployed,” he told Action 9 attorney Jason Stoogenke.
But he wasn’t deterred. “I looked at it, and I felt confident that I could fix it. So I went with it,” he said.
Hood bought it for more than $9,000. Then he restored it. “Everything you could think of, I changed out of that car,” he said.
He said that cost him another $18,000. But then, somebody broke into the car. “Did the police report?” Hood said. “They came to look at it, inspected it.”
Hood said police linked the engine to a stolen car from years ago. So, he said, they seized the vehicle, which is normal in these cases.
“Little bit. Little bit. But I’m like, I got a court order for it. I bought it at auction. I’ve gone through all the processes. I should still be fine. But no, I wasn’t,” he said. “Like I’ve been gut-punched. To work that hard and to see something, start something, and then become something else. You put your time, your sweat, your blood into it. And it’s just taken from you, and you’ve done nothing wrong. It’s heartbreaking.”
The auction business emailed Stoogenke that law enforcement would have told them if the car was stolen back when they went to auction it off and didn’t. They said they filed the right paperwork to sell the car and that the DMV [Division, not Dept... if you spell it out] approved the sale. They sold the car ‘as is’ with no warranties. They also pointed out “engine blocks can be replaced,” implying maybe someone replaced the engine and that the engine came from a stolen vehicle.
Hood said, if so, it wasn’t him. He’s upset over losing not only the car, but all the money he spent on it.
Stoogenke’s advice:
- Auctions in general: Typically, you have to act fast, meaning there’s little or no time to have the car checked out. So you may want to bring along a mechanic you trust.
- Insurance: They may reimburse you in a situation like this -- depending on your policy. Hood said he wouldn’t.
- VINs: Make sure the ones on the dash, door, and papers all match. It would be great to check other places on the car as well. But, typically, law enforcement knows where those are. Civilians don’t. And remember this: if someone replaced the car’s engine, the engine has its own serial number.