Anyone Remember The Couple Scammed Out Of Their Charger In California?

[MOPARHOUND!]

Did a search here on the board using just the term "California".  Waded through all the posts, but couldn't find this elderly couple's story.  Memory may be failing me, as maybe I read their story on another board.  Posting now to see if anyone else remembers their dilemna posted on the internet.

IIRC, they were the original owners of a 2nd gen Charger, I want to say a 69 R/T.  A con man told them he would restore their beloved Charger, and hauled the car to his supposed shop with a down payment for the work to begin.  The con man then called for more money to continue the restoration work.  Then the guy disappeared, he had their Charger, and their restoration money!!

Police were called, but couldn't trace the guy.

I just read this story on Ebay, and recognized the "M.O." of this con artist, maybe this is the guy that crooked them out of their Charger:

"Here's a brief story about this car;

I bought the car from a professional con man in LaQuinta, CA over 5 years ago. The car was described as a 34k mile true survivor car with brand new leather interior from legendary. Original HP 440 motor recently freshened up. Runs and drives like new. Fender tag options are all still on car. Kelsey-Hayes recall wheel car. Column shift auto with buddy seat. Dana 4:10:1 rear end. All completely numbers matching. Car is perfect in every way.

I had the car shipped "enclosed transport" for $1300 to make sure the car received no road rash on the way to its new home. The following auction description and pictures will tell the story on what I received. I didn't feel too badly at first because the FBI took the case within 3 days after I got the car. Within the next few weeks I learned that the same seller had taken numerous others for thousands of dollars on Mercurys and Mopars. The piece of trash seller chris houg still cheats and steals to make a good living and has felony theft and receiving stolen property charges currently against him. I have no clue what brought these charges but his next court date is in December of this year. It has been continued monthly for the past year. All this can be seen on California's State Website. This guy has even opened up a new business, "Midnight Auto Creations", (a very fitting name), and it seems the supplier of his very first $7k parts order has already filed suit against him for non pay. He has bankrupted in the past on over 50 entities including Ford Motor Credit, Chrysler, GMAC and even his own mother who by the way is listed as giving him $4k p/mth as his income. This guy has taken cars from people to restore and then accepts payments from them as he tells them his progress with the restoration. Upon learning they may have been had, the car owners go to see just how much progress has been made but good ol' chris has hidden the car which he has not done anything to. When the owner brings the law into it, chris claims the car is his for non-payment on the work he has done and it appears the liberal wennie judges let him get away with it. He also uses aliases. That is how he got Chrysler to finance a $50k car for him recently after bankrupting on them a couple of years ago. They have filed another civil suit against him but the last time I got news about it, they haven't even been able to get the car back. Ok, enough about this lowlife piece of krap, now on to the car.

BTW-After over 5 years I have recently been told by the local FBI agents that my case does not show as an active case which means they are not going to prosecute. I guess that was to be expected since there have been 2 new federal prosecutors in this district that have come and gone since my case was filed. Of the 2 original agents on the case- 1 has retired and the other has been promoted and currently works in Washington. Both of them are great people and I still appreciate very much the help they gave me. The 2 new agents that have taken their places are also very respectable and hard working individuals who I have enjoyed associating with. Unfortunately, the agents have no control over these cases, they only provide the evidence and all of them I have had the pleasure of working with did their jobs professionally. Thanks to all of them!"

Anyone remember the couple?  Quite the scam, he gets the Charger, the resto money, and when (IF!) confronted then claims he never was paid and is owed the Charger for work he supposedly did (and I would imagine storage fees of some sort)!

Link to Ebay auction with the con man's story:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=160044060209&fromMakeTrack=true

[myk]

Ugh.  That story was too ugly for me to even read all of the way.  How people live like that is beyond me...

[old man]

This is quite a disturbing story. With the price of cars now this is happening more and more. I had found a 69 Superbee in Flordia ( listed on a well known website ) for only $8500. It was stated with pictures  that the car was restored five years ago. It had a great paintjob, 440 with a pistolgrip 4spd and a dana 60. The interior looked great and it sounded too good to be true. I contacted owner and agreed to purchase car. The next day he emailed me and wanted $3000 within 24 hours to hold car. Money to be deposited in his bank account. I then felt something was wrong. I contacted him back and told him I would need a third party inspection of car. I told him that I had contacted a bussiness in Florida to do this. If this inspection was good I would wire the full amount to the third party to hold until I arrived on that weekend. I also informed him that all trading of funds and car would take place at this dealership. I never heard anything back from him and his email account and phone number was no working. This person and supposed car dissapeared off the frace of the earth. Scams are rampant anymore and it proves you can't trust just anyone.    

[charge-it]

So, do the older couple still own it? If so, the guy selling it on ebay is in posession of stolen property.

[hemi-hampton]

Thats story reminds me of a total lowlife scumbag running a Restoration shop out of Detroit by name of J____ Kloposki. Since everyone in Detroit looking to Lynch Mob him for screwing them over he's probably moved out of state to scam other unsuspecting victims. Watch out for this this scammer.

[Charger_Fan]

Man, that really sucks. Hopefully Chris Houg scres the wrong persone soon & ends up with 90% broken bones.

Anyone remember the couple? 

I remember a woman who bought a Charger as a surprise present for her husband's birthday & ended up getting a rusty hulk, is that who you're talking about?

[4cruzin]

I remember a woman who bought a Charger as a surprise present for her husband's birthday & ended up getting a rusty hulk, is that who you're talking about?

I think that was HLPAG that screwed them out of Illinois if I remember correctly.  More scam artists.   

[ChargerHound69]

Yes that was HLPAG on that one.


I think I remember the couple you are talking about.  I was looking on other websites for it, with no luck.

[69DodgeCharger]

There is a 69 Charger on ebay right now that was bought from Midnight Auto Creations....If you read the add you will get the same story about this guy rippiing people off and not returning their car....The car is a white Charger R/T

[Drache]

There is a 69 Charger on ebay right now that was bought from Midnight Auto Creations....If you read the add you will get the same story about this guy rippiing people off and not returning their car....The car is a white Charger R/T

I think that's the same one in the ebay link listed at the top.

[Ponch ®]

I think I remember the couple you are talking about.  I was looking on other websites for it, with no luck.

im pretty sure it was posted here, I remember the story too.