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(CNN) -- The owner of a Nebraska car dealership and two executives were in police custody facing theft charges Thursday after 81 cars were taken from the dealership's lot, authorities said.
Alan Patch, 52, the owner of Legacy Auto Sales in Scottsbluff, Nebraska, was being held in Tooele County, Utah, Scottsbluff police Capt. Kevin Spencer told CNN. Rachel Fait, 37, Legacy's comptroller, was arrested in Tooele County on Wednesday, and Legacy general manager Rick Covello, 53, turned himself in to Scottsbluff officials Thursday, Spencer said.
Police became aware of the case Tuesday, when they received a call from Toyota company officials, Spencer said. Toyota told police they had received a call that all of Legacy's new Toyotas were gone from its lot.
Employees arriving at the dealership for work on Tuesday also found the three executives gone, police said. They had packed up their personal possessions. Some computers were gone, as well. Fait and Patch's homes in Nebraska were on the market and empty, Spencer said.
In all, authorities found, 81 vehicles -- mostly Toyotas but some Fords as well, valued at more than $2.5 million -- had been moved off Legacy's lot over the weekend and on Monday. At least some of them were moved by a Utah transport company that was paid with a fraudulent cashier's check, Spencer said.
Authorities have been trying to track down the cars, he said. Seven of them were found at a Utah auto business; 16 others were sold at a Utah auction. Others were found in Las Vegas, Nevada, Spencer said, but police do not have an accurate tally of how many remain missing.
The FBI has been assisting local authorities in the case from the beginning, Spencer said.
The cars weren't the dealership's to sell free and clear. While they technically belonged to the dealership, they were financed by Toyota, he said.
New cars come to dealerships with documentation called a Manufacturer's Statement of Origin. Police investigating the case found that those statements had been converted to titles, Spencer said. While such conversion is not a crime, and is not unheard of among dealerships, the step usually is seen when a dealership goes under and is trying to expedite the sale of vehicles, he said.
What a dealer can do with cars depends on a dealership's agreement with the manufacturer, Spencer said. Police are attempting to find out details of Legacy's agreement with Toyota, he said, but "normally as part of that agreement, [the cars] are not to leave the dealership."
"We're of the opinion they've committed a crime," Spencer said. Arrest warrants for the three list each as facing one count of felony theft, he said.
The dealership had been facing financial difficulties, Spencer said. The Scottsbluff News-Herald reported a bank had been overseeing Legacy's day-to-day operations for about three months.
According to the newspaper, the owner of a Utah auto auction said that some of the vehicles had been sold at his business, but he declined further comment, saying he was seeking legal advice because he was trying to work things out with Toyota.
Doug Bergener, a manager at Bargain Buggys in Tooele, Utah, a suburb of Salt Lake City, told the newspaper he offered to buy 10 used vehicles from Legacy after hearing they were shutting down. But the vehicles that arrived were brand new, he said. He had sales pending on four before he got a call telling him not to sell them.
He told the News-Herald that he's known Patch and Fait for years, and that Patch told him he had paid for the vehicles and had titles.
"I don't think anyone can prove anything's illegal at this point," Bergener said, according to the News-Herald. "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."
1st Link
OMAHA, Neb. — Police have arrested three executives from a troubled western Nebraska car dealership where 81 vehicles worth roughly $2.5 million — as well as the executives themselves — vanished in recent days.
Legacy Auto Sales owner Allen Patch, 52, and controller Rachel Fait, 37, were arrested separately in Tooele County, Utah, and were being held at the county jail. The dealership’s 53-year-old general manager, Rick Covello, was driving one of the missing vehicles when he turned himself in to Scottsbluff police Thursday morning, Capt. Kevin Spencer said.
An arrest warrant affidavit said Fait may have embezzled more than $46,000 from the dealership in Scottsbluff, a western Nebraska town. The three were wanted on suspicion of theft.
About two dozen vehicles missing from the dealership were traced to Salt Lake City, and at least 16 of those had been sold at an auto auction. Six others were found at the Scottsbluff airport, one was found at a Wal-Mart parking lot in Evanston, Wyo., and the FBI found some of the other vehicles in Las Vegas.
Legacy has had financial problems, said John Childress, Scotts Bluff County’s chief deputy county attorney. Authorities suspect Patch and his associates were looking to sell the vehicles to auction houses and keep the proceeds rather than pay Toyota Financing. Officials said the three have no criminal records in Nebraska or Utah.
Charlie Roberts, a spokesman for the Utah Tax Commission, said Patch owned several auto dealerships in Utah.
The missing vehicles were all Fords and Toyotas. The Fords were put on transporter trucks and taken away Saturday and the Toyotas were shipped out late Monday, Childress said.
Officials said it did not appear the trucking company that moved the vehicles or the businesses that bought the vehicles did anything wrong. The roughly $18,000 in cashier’s checks the Utah-based trucking company received were fraudulent.
On Tuesday, a representative for Toyota Financing contacted police to report the vehicles stolen, and two employees of the dealership contacted police that day with concerns, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.
The Toyota representative also told police that the only reason a car dealer would obtain temporary titles and remove vehicles from the lot, as Legacy did, would be “to run and convert them into cash,” according to the affidavit.
Miranda Cervantes, the dealership’s title manager, showed police documents that indicated Fait had taken more than $46,000 from the company over the past several months. She told police that that she heard the executives talking about Fait taking money from the business and that Fait used to keep a backpack with a large amount of cash at the dealership.
Cervantes 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.
Police also found their Scottsbluff homes empty after the cars were reported stolen and postal officials in Scottsbluff said a form had been filed to change Legacy’s mailing address to a post office box in Fort Collins, Colo.
Cervantes has not responded to calls seeking additional comment.
Legacy Auto Sales remained open Thursday despite the missing cars.
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Associated Press writers Eric Olson in Omaha, Neb., and Mike Stark in Salt Lake City, Utah, contributed to this report.
2nd Link
A lawyer for the owner of a troubled western Nebraska car dealership says his client wanted to sell, not steal the 81 vehicles worth roughly $2.5 million that vanished in recent days.
Robert Hughes says his client, Allen Patch, believed he had a right to sell the 81 Toyotas and Fords that were reported stolen after being removed from the Legacy Auto Sales lot in Scottsbluff.
Hughes says Patch planned to pay Toyota, which financed the cars, once the vehicles were sold.
Patch and two other dealership managers have been arrested on suspicion of felony theft.
Hughes says Patch had most of the cars sent to Utah because he used to own several dealerships there.
Patch believed he could sell the cars more quickly and at a better price in Utah.
3rd Link
There will be updates as the story unfold here: KNEB - Local news outlet
Alan Patch, 52, the owner of Legacy Auto Sales in Scottsbluff, Nebraska, was being held in Tooele County, Utah, Scottsbluff police Capt. Kevin Spencer told CNN. Rachel Fait, 37, Legacy's comptroller, was arrested in Tooele County on Wednesday, and Legacy general manager Rick Covello, 53, turned himself in to Scottsbluff officials Thursday, Spencer said.
Police became aware of the case Tuesday, when they received a call from Toyota company officials, Spencer said. Toyota told police they had received a call that all of Legacy's new Toyotas were gone from its lot.
Employees arriving at the dealership for work on Tuesday also found the three executives gone, police said. They had packed up their personal possessions. Some computers were gone, as well. Fait and Patch's homes in Nebraska were on the market and empty, Spencer said.
In all, authorities found, 81 vehicles -- mostly Toyotas but some Fords as well, valued at more than $2.5 million -- had been moved off Legacy's lot over the weekend and on Monday. At least some of them were moved by a Utah transport company that was paid with a fraudulent cashier's check, Spencer said.
Authorities have been trying to track down the cars, he said. Seven of them were found at a Utah auto business; 16 others were sold at a Utah auction. Others were found in Las Vegas, Nevada, Spencer said, but police do not have an accurate tally of how many remain missing.
The FBI has been assisting local authorities in the case from the beginning, Spencer said.
The cars weren't the dealership's to sell free and clear. While they technically belonged to the dealership, they were financed by Toyota, he said.
New cars come to dealerships with documentation called a Manufacturer's Statement of Origin. Police investigating the case found that those statements had been converted to titles, Spencer said. While such conversion is not a crime, and is not unheard of among dealerships, the step usually is seen when a dealership goes under and is trying to expedite the sale of vehicles, he said.
What a dealer can do with cars depends on a dealership's agreement with the manufacturer, Spencer said. Police are attempting to find out details of Legacy's agreement with Toyota, he said, but "normally as part of that agreement, [the cars] are not to leave the dealership."
"We're of the opinion they've committed a crime," Spencer said. Arrest warrants for the three list each as facing one count of felony theft, he said.
The dealership had been facing financial difficulties, Spencer said. The Scottsbluff News-Herald reported a bank had been overseeing Legacy's day-to-day operations for about three months.
According to the newspaper, the owner of a Utah auto auction said that some of the vehicles had been sold at his business, but he declined further comment, saying he was seeking legal advice because he was trying to work things out with Toyota.
Doug Bergener, a manager at Bargain Buggys in Tooele, Utah, a suburb of Salt Lake City, told the newspaper he offered to buy 10 used vehicles from Legacy after hearing they were shutting down. But the vehicles that arrived were brand new, he said. He had sales pending on four before he got a call telling him not to sell them.
He told the News-Herald that he's known Patch and Fait for years, and that Patch told him he had paid for the vehicles and had titles.
"I don't think anyone can prove anything's illegal at this point," Bergener said, according to the News-Herald. "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."
1st Link
OMAHA, Neb. — Police have arrested three executives from a troubled western Nebraska car dealership where 81 vehicles worth roughly $2.5 million — as well as the executives themselves — vanished in recent days.
Legacy Auto Sales owner Allen Patch, 52, and controller Rachel Fait, 37, were arrested separately in Tooele County, Utah, and were being held at the county jail. The dealership’s 53-year-old general manager, Rick Covello, was driving one of the missing vehicles when he turned himself in to Scottsbluff police Thursday morning, Capt. Kevin Spencer said.
An arrest warrant affidavit said Fait may have embezzled more than $46,000 from the dealership in Scottsbluff, a western Nebraska town. The three were wanted on suspicion of theft.
About two dozen vehicles missing from the dealership were traced to Salt Lake City, and at least 16 of those had been sold at an auto auction. Six others were found at the Scottsbluff airport, one was found at a Wal-Mart parking lot in Evanston, Wyo., and the FBI found some of the other vehicles in Las Vegas.
Legacy has had financial problems, said John Childress, Scotts Bluff County’s chief deputy county attorney. Authorities suspect Patch and his associates were looking to sell the vehicles to auction houses and keep the proceeds rather than pay Toyota Financing. Officials said the three have no criminal records in Nebraska or Utah.
Charlie Roberts, a spokesman for the Utah Tax Commission, said Patch owned several auto dealerships in Utah.
The missing vehicles were all Fords and Toyotas. The Fords were put on transporter trucks and taken away Saturday and the Toyotas were shipped out late Monday, Childress said.
Officials said it did not appear the trucking company that moved the vehicles or the businesses that bought the vehicles did anything wrong. The roughly $18,000 in cashier’s checks the Utah-based trucking company received were fraudulent.
On Tuesday, a representative for Toyota Financing contacted police to report the vehicles stolen, and two employees of the dealership contacted police that day with concerns, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.
The Toyota representative also told police that the only reason a car dealer would obtain temporary titles and remove vehicles from the lot, as Legacy did, would be “to run and convert them into cash,” according to the affidavit.
Miranda Cervantes, the dealership’s title manager, showed police documents that indicated Fait had taken more than $46,000 from the company over the past several months. She told police that that she heard the executives talking about Fait taking money from the business and that Fait used to keep a backpack with a large amount of cash at the dealership.
Cervantes 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.
Police also found their Scottsbluff homes empty after the cars were reported stolen and postal officials in Scottsbluff said a form had been filed to change Legacy’s mailing address to a post office box in Fort Collins, Colo.
Cervantes has not responded to calls seeking additional comment.
Legacy Auto Sales remained open Thursday despite the missing cars.
———
Associated Press writers Eric Olson in Omaha, Neb., and Mike Stark in Salt Lake City, Utah, contributed to this report.
2nd Link
A lawyer for the owner of a troubled western Nebraska car dealership says his client wanted to sell, not steal the 81 vehicles worth roughly $2.5 million that vanished in recent days.
Robert Hughes says his client, Allen Patch, believed he had a right to sell the 81 Toyotas and Fords that were reported stolen after being removed from the Legacy Auto Sales lot in Scottsbluff.
Hughes says Patch planned to pay Toyota, which financed the cars, once the vehicles were sold.
Patch and two other dealership managers have been arrested on suspicion of felony theft.
Hughes says Patch had most of the cars sent to Utah because he used to own several dealerships there.
Patch believed he could sell the cars more quickly and at a better price in Utah.
3rd Link
There will be updates as the story unfold here: KNEB - Local news outlet
