A Stretch Limo Stretches the Truth
DES PLAINES, Ill, July 20 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Special agents with the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) and authorities in Texas, New York and California teamed up recently to recover a stolen 2007 Cadillac Escalade sport utility vehicle that had been "stretched" into a limousine.
This case provides a vivid example of how conventional vehicle theft has been taken to new levels by thieves with the savvy to steal, alter and resell hot cars to unsuspecting purchasers.
This episode began on Feb.1, 2008, with the theft of the Escalade from Coral Gables, Fla. The vehicle was then disguised with a counterfeit vehicle identification number (VIN) and a clean New York state title and sold on a popular online auction site to an unsuspecting limousine company in Orange, Calif.
The limo company cut and stretched the SUV into a limousine and resold it to a businessman in Texas for $125,000.
When the businessman attempted to obtain a Texas title, the VIN was run through NICB and checked against suspicious VIN data supplied by Experian Automotive. This quickly identified the VIN as a counterfeit. Cadillac had never produced a vehicle with that VIN.
On July 10, 2009, a NICB agent and a Texas Department of Public Safety auto theft investigator located and seized the Escalade in Corpus Christi, Texas.
"Consumers need to exercise sound judgment when buying used vehicles from private parties or online services," said Joe Wehrle, NICB president and chief executive officer. "In this case an innocent purchaser may be out thousands of dollars as a result of this transaction. So, if in doubt, check it out carefully before you hand over the cash."
The public can use NICB's free VINCheck(SM) system to check vehicles before purchasing, and anyone who suspects insurance fraud or vehicle theft can report their tips to NICB at 1-800-TEL-NICB or at www.nicb.org.
About the National Insurance Crime Bureau: headquartered in Des Plaines, Ill., the NICB is the nation's leading not-for-profit organization exclusively dedicated to preventing, detecting and defeating insurance fraud and vehicle theft through information analysis, investigations, training, legislative advocacy and public awareness. The NICB is supported by more than 1,000 property and casualty insurance companies and self-insured organizations. NICB member companies wrote nearly $343 billion in insurance premiums in 2008, or more than 82 percent of the nation's property/casualty insurance. To learn more visit www.nicb.org.
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