Carvana Allegedly Sells Stolen Camaro ZL1
Camaro ZL1 stolen from Texas made its way to Florida after six months where Carvana allegedly sold the vehicle. Now, it’s in police possession.
There’s nothing quite like the nightmare of someone stealing your car. However, the pain of losing your ride can be greatly amplified if you happen to get a chance to see it appear in someone else’s possession knowing that there’s not a lot you can do about it other than hope police can sort things out. Now, imagine that the folks in possession of your stolen car happen to be a part of one of the biggest car retailers in the U.S. In the case of this Camaro ZL1, that’s exactly what happened.
Perhaps the craziest part of this story is that the original owner of the car is seemingly still uninvolved. WFLA reports that Roger Johnston bought the car from Carvana, and had no idea it was stolen. After paying $74,000 for this 2018 Camaro ZL1 and hanging onto it for nearly two years, Johnston decided to sell it. He took it to a local dealership to sell it and incidentally opened Pandora’s box.
A Classic VIN Swap Scam
The dealership discovered a discrepancy in the vehicle identification numbers on the car. Yes, “numbers.” If you’re familiar with the concept of a VIN, you’d know that shouldn’t be plural. Unfortunately for Johnston, it is. The Camaro has two different VINs. When the dealer ran the correct one as indicated by scanning the car’s OBD2 port, they discovered it was reported stolen in 2022. Johnston then called the police, who confiscated the car as part of the investigation.
“It’s unacceptable. For me to own the car for two years, almost two years, and now it’s gone and they charged me all this money. They should have done their due diligence until they sold it to me. It should never have made it to me,” said Johnston.
He’s definitely got a point. It’s remarkable that Carvana didn’t manage to catch the VIN mismatch when they purchased the car originally. Moreover, it’s remarkable that this isn’t the first time Carvana has allegedly sold a stolen car. With a constant state of stolen cars, title washing, and VIN swaps, you’d think the company would be a bit more careful about what they’re taking in. However, it seems that the desire to move large volumes of cars is taking priority.
For more details on the story, check out WFLA’s video below.
