Weve covered several stories about people buying cars from Carvana only to later find out they were stolen property. Its happened again, this time in the Tampa Bay area of Florida, and the man had the car for over a year before finding out the shocking truth.
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Just like in the other stories involving Carvana, this seems to be a vehicle which was stolen, the vin plates on the drivers doorjamb and the dash were swapped, then at some point it was sold to the dealer. How Carvana doesnt catch something so unsophisticated is beyond us.
As reported by WFLA, the victim bought a 2021 Ford Mustang GT from Carvana and had it for 13 months before finding out it was in fact stolen. He had fully detailed it, applied ceramic coating, added extra parts, and treated the pony car like it was his. But it in fact wasnt.
Police called one day to let the guy know their suspicions. After showing up and confirming the true VIN, they loaded the Mustang on a wrecker, telling the guy he had a stolen vehicle in his possession for over a year.
Like in other stories, the guy who bought the Mustang had trouble getting a response from Carvana after police took the car. It wasnt until a local reporter reached out to the company that they worked to make things right.
Ultimately, as car shoppers all of us need to cover ourselves by checking VINs either when were looking at a car or shortly after taking delivery. This means not just looking at those two tags which are easy to see, but seeing where else the VIN is put on your specific make and model, then checking those numbers against the two tags most people look at.
That might sound unreasonable, but paying on a stolen car, having the police show up your house to take it, then dealing with all the legal problems afterward seems worse.
While Carvana has been in the news a lot lately for this sort of thing, weve seen this happen with other dealers, although usually mom and pop operations, not a big chain.
Image via WFLA/YouTube
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