Never, Ever Leave Your Pink Slip in Your Glovebox!

A friend of mine had this happen, no joke:

One morning a guy showed up at her door completely unexpected and told her he was there to collect her car. She was completely dumbfounded–she asked why he would be collecting her car, and he said that she was late on her loan payment. She had no idea what he was talking about. She had not taken out a loan on her car, what was he talking about? She was in shock for a few minutes as he began loading her vehicle up onto the tow truck, then she started to really fight back, she said she did not get any loans on that car, and she had the pink slip to prove it! When she went to get the pink slip, it was gone. She knew right away that someone had taken her pink slip and gotten a loan on her car and never had any intention on paying the loan back.

She called me that morning, in a complete panic because some man was at her door telling her to hand over the keys to her car. She had no idea what was going on…she was in such a panic that she couldn’t think straight. I told her to call the police, to tell them someone was trying to steal her car. She said, “No! He’s not trying to steal my car, he said someone took a loan out on my car!”

Talk about a completely messed up situation…she has done everything, called the cops, called the couple of people who stayed with her the past year, she’s done everything the police told her to do, but she was so upset that someone would do this to her that she couldn’t focus on anything else but “who did this”. I told her she needed to stop thinking about that and just move forward to try and figure out how to get her car back. She could not stop thinking about who would do this to her. I feel terrible for her, this is a really messed up thing for a single mother with two mouths to feed and to bodies to drive around and take to school and take to appointments and take to extracurricular activities. They told her she has to come up with nearly $3,500.00 or the car will be sold at an auction. They also told her that in order to be able to help her, she needs to help them prove who did it.

What?!?!?!?! Are you kidding me? The laws on identity theft are obviously very lenient and not very well defined. That’s exactly what this is, isn’t it? Identity theft? My husband claims that the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office should be able to do something. I looked online and found that the California Attorney General has a Public Inquiry Unit for claims against a business or individual for fraud; she’s so fed up with the whole thing and just so tired of it all that I don’t think she believes anyone will do anything about it or help her–so she hasn’t called them or made a claim but if she doesn’t, I WILL. How can there not be stricter laws against something like this? Someone can just go out tomorrow and get a fake license with my name and picture on it, a signature similar to mine, almost exact, and they can start using my name to get credit, loans, vehicles, etc.?? Doesn’t seem right at all to me that nobody is helping her. She is never going to be able to replace that vehicle–she doesn’t work, and her estranged husband, to whom she stays married for medical insurance, refuses to help her even though his two daughters are now having to miss out on everything–most importantly right now, medical appointments (one has juvenile diabetes)–I am truly thankful for the man I’m married to because if something like this happened to me, even though we are split up, he would take care of it in a second, because to him–my problems are his problems; our kids’ problems are his problems– that’s just how it should be.

Does anyone have any other information that would help her, like anyone else she could call who will actively help her get her vehicle back? It has been nearly 30 days since they showed up and repo’d her vehicle. Any information would be appreciated, you can comment or email me directly at lulubelle7537@artlover.com.