March 11, 2009 - Legacy Auto Sales, Scottsbluff NE

Update March 12, 2009      3-execs in custody

3 execs, 81 cars missing from Nebraska dealership

Held Hostage or Hiding in a cornfield maybe?

Scores of new cars vanished from a western Nebraska car dealership and a prosecutor said Wednesday that some had turned up in other states and warrants had been issued for three missing executives. The 81 Fords and Toyotas taken from Legacy Auto Sales in Scottsbluff were valued at about $2.5 million.

The Fords were put on transporter trucks and taken away Saturday and the Toyotas were shipped out late Monday, John Childress, Scotts Bluff County's chief deputy county attorney, said Wednesday.

He said seven of the cars were found Wednesday at an auto auction in Utah. Others were found in Arizona, but he didn't know how many.

Childress said arrest warrants had been issued for owner Allen Patch, controller Rachel Fait and general manager Rick Covello, who are wanted on suspicion of theft.

"Employees were expecting these people to be in Tuesday morning, and they were surprised no one was there," Childress said. "It is not an expected departure."

Miranda Cervantes, the dealership's title manager, 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.

Justin Leach, a spokesman for Toyota Financing in Torrance, Calif., said Patch financed the Toyotas and Fords through his company.

Legacy has had financial problems, Childress said, and authorities suspect Patch and his associates were looking to sell the vehicles to auction houses and keep the proceeds rather than pay Toyota Financing. He said the three have no criminal records in Nebraska.

All three previously lived in Utah, and the FBI and law enforcement agencies in several western states were searching for them, Childress said.

Leach said there are some provisions that would allow a dealer to move vehicles.

"But if the dealer and the cars go missing there's an issue," he said.

Most of the missing cars were Toyotas, but Childress didn't have an exact number.

All 81 cars had valid temporary titles, as required by state law, Childress said.

Despite the missing new cars and executives, Legacy Auto Sales remained open Wednesday. Cervantes did not respond to calls seeking additional comment.

Scottsbluff is 470 miles west of Omaha.

Original Story - Associated Press

Update - March 12, 2009

Police: 81 cars missing from dealership; 3 execs in custody

Alan Patch, 52, who owns Legacy Auto Sales	Rachel Fait, 37, Legacy's comptroller	Rick Covello, 53, Legacy general manager

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."

Update Story - CNN

Update - March 14

Trucking company got burned shipping stolen cars

A Utah-based trucking executive says he got taken for a ride hauling new cars from a western Nebraska that turned out to be stolen.

The cashier's checks that Robert Rausch says he demanded for moving the Toyota vehicles turned out to be counterfeit.

Rausch says he owes money for drivers' wages and fuel and has nothing to show for it.

Rausch says he was supposed to make $28,000 shipping 80 vehicles. He brokered some of the work to other trucking firms. The vehicles were shipped to dealerships in Tooele, Utah, and Las Vegas, and auction houses.

Three executives of Legacy Auto Sales in Scottsbluff, Neb., have been arrested on suspicion of theft for arranging to sell the vehicles and keep the proceeds without paying Toyota for them.

Original Story - LocalNews8.com