I was selling my vehicle to a “family friend” at a reduced price to help them in a rough spo
I had written a lease agreement so they could use my vehicle while making payments on it.
that was my 1st mistake well it was all.one huge mistake…anyways…
one day while going through my papers I noticed the title was missing. I looked everywhere and it was gone. than one day I decided to stop by the buyers home and noticed my car wasn’t there but a new motorcycle was I asked where it was and was told it was parked in his fiances garage at her house but that he didn’t have his monthly payment I waited 3 weeks after no word from him I drobe to her house and saw that my car wasn’t there. now I knew somethinb
I used my resources and discovered my “friend” just recently old my car on craigslist when I approached his now ex-fiance she told me that he had stolen my title one weekend when he was over than forged my name and sold it for 2x what I was going to charge him.
what can I do?
has no signatures from me on anything. no Bill of sale. nothing
If he stole your title and forged your name that’s a crime in most places (I have no idea where you live). Collect any evidence you have and contact local law enforcement or your district attorney and see what they will do about it. If he also broke into your house that’s another crime he can be prosecuted for…
I re-scaled the font size in your post back to normal. Please do not use large font sizes like that in the future as many users here find it annoying.
Also, questions that involve legal advice and issues belong in our In My Humble Opinion forum. I will move this thread for you. Please note that as the forum name implies, any responses you get are just the opinions of some online folks and should not be taken as the equivalent of professional legal advice.
Moving thread from General Questions to In My Humble Opinion.
I concur. Everything is pretty much side issue except for stealing the title, and making a sale of the vehicle with a forged signature. The partial sale/lease/loan is all but irrelevant - if you borrow my lawn mower on any terms at all, you don’t have the right to sell it.
I disagree that it’s irrelevant - if the OP has paperwork showing the “friend” agreed to make payments, that’s evidence that s/he did not give / sell the car to the thief.
Without that, the thief could try saying “but s/he GAVE it to me!”.
Other than that, I absolutely concur you need to go to the authorities. You won’t get another dime for the car, but the thief deserves jail time.
Before going to the police give him one last chance to pay in full (or perhaps he could transfer the title of that new motorcycle to you if it is completely paid for).
And if things go bad the OP should be able to get his car back–the new owner has no right to it.
He stole your car and forged your signature, both are crimes. Call the police. Don’t go to his house to confront him or tell him that you’re going to the police. If you feel like giving him a chance to make good on the original agreement do it over the phone from the police station and give him a small amount of time to comply, like 30 minutes. He can meet you at the police station to pay and if he doesn’t you’re right there to file a report.
Maybe I’ve seen too many true crime stories on TV but this is the exact thing that ends badly for many people. You confront him at his home, he panics, you’re dead and buried in the back yard. Once he knows you’re going to the police you can’t give him time for his panic or anger to take over. Advance notice also gives him time to fake evidence for his side and to concoct his own lies. The element of surprise is better.
It may just be complicating things, but as you sold him the car at a low price to help him out and his solution was to sell it for twice as much, I think you’re entitled to the entire proceeds of the sale, not whatever amount you originally agreed to.
You know, coming from a state that requires a notary to transfer a car title, I’ve long looked with envy at how easy it is to do title transactions in the “fill out the thing and mail it in” states. I guess there are some advantages to more involved title procedure, though!