The Tale of Tampa Fraud-Boy

This story has been burning up the car modder forums the last few days. A 20 year old guy gave his 2004 Toyota Celica to a small custom car shop for a paint job. Then he brought over a few parts and asked them to "add it to the bill". The kid must have been a good talker, because he talked the shop into doing $16,000 worth of work on his car over the course of months.

Then, Fraud-boy showed up at the shop and demanded his car, saying that he never signed a work order for all that work, and he just wanted his car back. When that didn't work, he sent his girlfriend, who offered a $60 down payment and a payment plan. When that didn't work, he came with his mom and the police, but a call by the sop to the state the attorney general shut that down. By the way, the car doesn't even belong to him, really, it is financed by his mom. And, by the way, Fraud-boy has a criminal record, for fraud.

Now the car is located at an undisclosed location, and the shop has placed a mechanic's lein against it. Fraud-boy swears he is going to get it back Friday, but it seems unlikely.

Read the whole hilarious, sordid mess here and here. Things get interesting around page 5, when Fraud-boy (SCP_celica) shows up to defend himself, in his full illiterate glory.

The downside to this amazing story is that the custom shop, which is a two-man show, is now teetering financially because of the time and resources they put into Fraud-boy's car. A PayPal account has been set up for people to donate a few bucks to help them out (I already did), maybe if you are moved you might consider putting a little in the hat.