ATLANTA, Georgia — A Georgia man spent an entire year driving a stolen car and had no idea.
He bought the car online through Carvana and contacted Justin Gray with our sister station WSB in Atlanta after police repossessed his car.
“Police came out and they took my truck,” Anthony Williams said.
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Williams bought the RAM 1500 Big Horn Truck from Carvana, and a full year later law enforcement showed up at his door and told him he was driving a stolen vehicle.
“I had a Carfax on the vehicle. It went through titling. I had my tag work,” Williams said.
Authorities said that in this case there was no way for the tag office to spot the fraud.
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They said the thieves used a real vin and title number that belonged to another vehicle and put it on the stolen car.
According to the investigative report, there were discrepancies including the font and wording used.
“Once they told me they thought it was a stolen truck, I started checking the chassis and checking the VIN numbers and I saw the VIN number stretched out in the door and actually the venom was wrong under the chassis. So, you know, I kind of said, okay, they’re probably right,” Williams said.
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WSB covered a similar story in May, where Demetrius Howard had the Audi he purchased months earlier from a Covington Dealer reported stolen out of Ohio.
“I got scared when he said that because then it was like, does he think I stole it?” Williams said.
Investigators said that there was only one thing that seemed off about William’s truck.
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The same day the truck was offered for sale in Florida by Carvana, it also is reported to have had an oil change in Michigan with different mileage.
Williams contacted WSB’s Justin Gray after spending more than a month trying to get his money back from Carvana and the finance company.
“You know, the neighbors looking at me like, okay, what’s going on over there? Did he get his vehicle repossessed? Is he doing some illegal activity? So it was pretty horrible for me,” Williams said.
Carvana told Gray that Both Williams and the company were victims of a sophisticated theft and that they were taking the appropriate steps to make it right.
Williams’ said that Carvana has since reached out to him and gave him all his money back.