24. The Art Of The Deal
We have been looking for a car for our youngest. Looking through online ads, we came across an ad for a luxury car that only asked for about 1/3 of what this car blue books for. The says the car just suddenly stopped starting.
My husband is a mechanic so we decided to look at it, just to see. Immediately, he sees a couple potential problems as to why it doesn’t start. The car has new tires, the body is nearly perfect, and the interior needs a few easy fixes.
Still well worth way more than owner is asking, even with paying for repairs to get it running. Of course, we bought it. My youngest is ecstatic about getting a luxury car for graduation. My husband gets the car running—it was an even easier fix than he originally thought.
That’s when we met the crazy lady. It’s time for plates and registration. Off to the DMV we go. We come out with the temporary tags and as my husband is putting them on the car, this lady walks up. She says: “Excuse me”? But I was on the phone, so I ignore her.
Again, she says, more rudely this time, “Excuse me”? I reply: “I’m sorry, do you need something”? She says: “Yes! That car”. I say: “My car? What about it”? She asks: “Where did you get it”? Me: “We bought it a few weeks ago”. She says: “That’s my car”. My husband says: “No, it isn’t. Now get away from us”. She says: “Yes, that is the car I was going to buy from [previous owner] and you stole it from me”.
I say: “Lady, I paid [previous owner] what they were asking and nothing was said about you. Leave. Us. Alone”. She claims she had an agreement to buy the car from the previous owner. She says “You came in and MADE her sell it to you. I want it back and I want it now.
I had to buy that piece of garbage over there instead. Now, you take the piece of garbage and give me my car”. I told her whatever, and to get out of my way before I run her over. She says: “I’m not going anywhere.
I’ve already reported to the authorities that I have found my stolen car and they are on the way”. My husband asks: “Are you nuts lady? You can’t just report a car stolen because you missed the chance to buy it”. But there was something this insane lady didn’t know.
We were actually waiting on the previous owner to show up to get her plate and registration because there was a mix-up with the title (DMV’s fault). We had to wait to get that fixed before we could title, register, and plate it, so we were still using the correct plates.
The previous owner can then turn in her plate and get a refund for the months not used. Two cruisers pulled up about five minutes later. The previous owner pulled in right behind them.
As the two officers are getting out and asking who called, the previous owner walked up to me and my husband, asking what is going on. She hadn’t noticed the crazy lady yet.
The crazy lady immediately started yelling how she had paid for this car and we forced the previous owner to give us the title instead. She wanted us taken away and her given the title and possession of the car right now.
One of the officers walked over to us. I grinned because it is one my friend’s sons. He grew up with and was friends with my oldest son.
He said: “Hey. Want to tell me what is going on”? I replied: “I don’t really know. We bought this car a few weeks ago from her [pointing to previous owner] and while we were waiting for her to show up to get her plate, this woman started screaming at us about stealing the car. Something about they [pointing between previous owner and crazy lady] had an agreement about the car but she [previous owner] sold it to us instead and now she [crazy lady] is demanding we take whatever car she ended up buying and we give her this one”.
The previous owner says: “Oh my god. This is exactly why I didn’t sell her the car in the first place. She is my neighbor and she is INSANE! She asked me about it when I decided to sell it and I told her she could buy it, but she wanted me to get it running again but still sell it to her for the low price.
I told her I didn’t want to deal with it and that is why it was low”. “If I got it running again, I might just keep it, but I would definitely raise the selling price to at least double. She has called me a few times asking if I had it running yet and I have told her no but she kept telling me to call her when I did”.
The officer then (going with procedures) checked all of our IDs, checked the bill of sale, previous registration, and ran the VIN. Everything checked out.
The officer said: “I think we’re done here”. Then he turned to the crazy lady and said: “Ma’am, what you have attempted here is against the law. Actually, you made a false report which is against the law and I could cuff you, but I’m not.
I’m sure you’re just upset and made a bad judgment call so we will let it slide”. Her reaction was unbelievable. She screamed: “No! It wasn’t a false report! That is MY car”! He said: “Ma’am, stop. Just stop. I could also charge you with attempted car theft but we’re all just going to walk away now”.
She said: “No! I’m not just walking away. This isn’t happening. [Pointing at previous owner] You owe me [amount twice what we paid for the car] And I will get my car back”. Officer #2 said: “Ma’am step over by the cruiser. We need to have a talk”. I gave the plate to the previous owner and Officer #1 told us to have a nice day.
My husband and I went ahead and left while previous owner went into the DMV. The crazy was still ranting at Officer #2 about allowing us to take the car. Well, there was a happy ending. The previous owner texted me later that the crazy lady was in the back of the officer’s car when she left…still yelling.
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