photo by
MICHAELPARRISH
NEWS STORY
Hot Deals
A Portland security guard learns that you can't judge a truck by its title.BY JOSH FEIT
feit@wweek.com
Rytel is one of the largest used car dealers in the Portland metro area, selling about 350 cars a month from its three lots in Milwaukie.
Truck Shack on Northeast 82nd Avenue was also bamboozled by Tommy Adams' scheme and sold
a truck that the Portland police have since impounded.
Rytel says it's going to court on Scott Webber's behalf to get his truck back. Webber says he doesn't want to be represented by the auto dealer and has his own attorney to deal with Rytel.
The attorney general's office reports that in the past three years Rytel has racked up more than 100 consumer complaints, ranging from violations of the Unlawful Trade Practices Act to selling faulty cars.
The mystery of the Ford F-150 has left a line of lawyers, government officials, police officers and car dealers scratching their heads. It also left Webber--without a truck or his money--the victim of Oregon's vehicle-registration laws.
Our story starts with 54-year-old Tommy Adams of Northeast Portland. According to Portland Police Sgt. Robert Gross, Adams used a $57,000 counterfeit cashier's check to buy seven vehicles at Pate Auction Service in Helena, Mont., in September. The Montana dealer reported the bogus check to the police on Sept. 28. The next day, Adams sold two of the trucks, including the '94 F-150, to Rytel Auto & Truck Warehouse in Milwaukie.
Rytel co-owner Rod Thomas says he had no way of knowing the car was hot. He says Adams presented Rytel with the title and that his paperwork was in order.
DMV investigator Rollie Husen agrees that Rytel didn't technically do anything wrong.
Gross says a "glitch" in Oregon's system fostered the current fiasco. While a dealership is required to tell the DMV within 10 days that it has a certain car in its inventory, it never has to register the car. Meanwhile, there are no notification requirements for cars purchased from out of state. As a result, hot cars often don't show up stolen until unsuspecting consumers try to register them.
Gross says that if Rytel had checked with the DMV before selling the truck to Webber, the dealership would have found out that the car was stolen: The Montana auction house had reported Adams' alleged larceny five days before Rytel sold the truck to Webber. The Ford was entered into the National Crime Information Center database as a stolen vehicle, and anyone who checked the VIN would have caught it, Gross says.
Husen says it makes sense that dealers are exempt from registering vehicles through the DMV because they are turning the cars around so fast. According to Monty King of the Independent Auto Dealers Association, used-car dealers don't have the resources to check up on all the cars that come through their lots.
For his part, Webber is exasperated with Rytel.
After the police towed his truck, Webber made a panicked call to Rytel. He says he was assured by an apologetic sales manager, David Lee, that Rytel would refund Webber's money. However, Webber says that when he called back the next day, Lee was gone. His call was forwarded to Rytel's lawyer, Chris Covert, who rescinded Lee's offer. "Covert told me, 'You're on your own. We're victims, too,'" Webber says. "They have my money. How are they the victims?"
At Covert's suggestion, Webber says, he hired a lawyer. After hearing from Webber's lawyer, Rytel changed its tune. Covert is going to court to try to regain possession of the truck for Webber. It that fails, Rytel has promised to refund his money.
Of course, a story this complex can't have a happy ending--at least not yet. Webber has turned down Rytel's offer because it doesn't include $700 worth of improvements he made to the truck--or the money he spent on attorney fees.
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Willamette Week | originally published November 11, 1998
