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A man from North Carolina bought his wife a Maserati car for her birthday as a special gift, but later discovered it was a stolen car that had then been sold on to him.
Here's a video explaining how the story went down:
Army veteran Jason Scott paid more than $68,000 (£55,000) for the car, which he purchased as a present for his wife last November.
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He got it from a company in North Carolina called Carvana, and said that he was really looking forward to seeing his wife’s reaction to it.
"It was exciting for it to be coming down the hill, waiting for it outside, everything was fine," he said.
Everything was fine, until he took the car for a routine service at a Maserati dealership this February, where they informed him that it was – in fact – a stolen car.
"That's when they found out that the vehicle was stolen," Scott explained.
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You see, when they checked an identification number on the car, they found that it was actually not a 2021 Maserati at all, but rather a 2017 Maserati that had been stolen.
The technician at the garage noticed that some of the parts didn’t add up to when the car was supposed to be from, but were from an older car.
Scott said: “When they check the VIN number on the chassis, that's when they saw that it was a stolen vehicle.
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“VIN on the car on the window and the car door was different.”
That led the police to become involved, and they questioned Scott about it, but were satisfied when he showed them the proof of purchase from Carvana.
So, he called them up directly.
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"She said, 'Well, we can't trade the vehicle back in until you bring the vehicle back.' I said, 'I can't bring the vehicle back.' I said, 'The police have the vehicle,'" he explained.
Despite Scott demanding two car payments and an initial down payment returned, he says that Carvana weren’t ‘responding back to anything at all’.
Scott has now employed an attorney, asking for $1,000,000 in compensation for financial and reputational losses, as well as a public apology.
Carvana sent a letter to that attorney stating that they didn’t know the car was stolen either, apologizing and offering him a refund of the money he’s already paid or a swap for another vehicle.
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They also offered $1,000 as a goodwill gesture.
As well as the money he’s sued for, Scott wants Carvana to ensure that something like this doesn’t happen to someone else in future.
"I know they say they have 150-point inspections. I want them to have 151,” he said.
“Check to see if the vehicle is stolen.
“The last thing I want anybody to do is to get caught late at night on some strange road in the backcountry and they can't verify it and they look at that person as a criminal.”
According to ABC News, Carvana are being investigated by the North Carolina Attorney General’s Office over 130 complaints, though they aren’t aware of any regarding stolen vehicles.
In a statement, a spokesperson for Carvana said: "When Carvana acquired this vehicle, someone had taken sophisticated criminal steps to steal and alter the vehicle and we’re taking all the necessary steps to make it right for our customer in this rare instance."
Tom Wood