HOUSTON — One woman is sharing her story with KHOU 11 News, hoping to warn others looking to buy a car. She called Houston police after two men showed up at her door, saying the car she had just purchased was actually theirs.
The woman, startled by the ordeal, asked us not to use her name.
She bought a 2019 Toyota Camry on Craigslist.
“It looked like a pretty good car, you know, didn't have a lot of miles on it or anything," she said.
The victim even pulled up a CARFAX report and didn’t see any red flags when she typed in the VIN. So, she arranged to meet the seller in a public place and paid $11,000 in cash.
However, when she got home she noticed something. There was an Apple Air Tag in the trunk and what happened next caught her off-guard.
“There's banging on the door. They’re demanding keys, like, 'Where(s) the keys? Where(s) the keys?'" she said.
The men told her the Camry was theirs. They rented it out online, and she was confused because she had the title. Turns out, the title was fake.
"It wasn’t stolen," said Sgt. Tracy Hicks with HPD's Auto Theft Task Force.
His division worked the case and said they are now dedicating investigators to these cases after seeing an uptick in rental cars being sold by criminals.
"Hold it up to the light and you see two big State of Texas (seals)," Hicks said. "A color copier is not going to be able to have that."
Police also said to check the font, the feel, and the colors - they should all be consistent.
“You can always, always, always go into a local police station, constable station and ask the desk officer you know, could you look at this?" Hicks advised. "That officer can actually run the numbers and make sure that that is a valid title."
Houston police said they returned the car to the original owner. They told us it’s almost impossible to get your money back, but it is possible to file charges.
In fact, in this case, police charged a man with stealing this car and tampering with government records, which was the car’s title.