A Fort Collins, Colorado man was left "dumbfounded" after learning the used car he just bought was reported stolen, according to FOX 31.
Cody Kneipp says he's been saving up for a year to purchase a vehicle. After coming across a Facebook Marketplace ad about a Toyota Yaris, he met up with the seller to buy it.
"It didn’t show any damage of being broken into so that was the weird thing," Kneipp told reporters. "He had the title, he had the original key, it just was so weird. I had VIN verification done, I had emissions done on it and nothing."
Kneipp then dropped by the DMV a week later to register his new vehicle, and that's when he learned the shocking truth: the vehicle came up in the system as stolen.
"I was dumbfounded it was literally a reaction of, ‘wait you’re kidding me right’ and she said ‘no, unfortunately, it is marked as stolen,'" Kneipp recounted. "She’s like ‘oh yeah no no this happens all the time, owners get their stuff back and they just don’t tell us so the report stays open.'"
Aurora Police told the Fort Collins man that the original owners left their title and extra key in the glove box.
"I’m really happy that the original owners got their car back but yeah, I ended up being the victim basically," Kneipp said, adding that he's now out $3,500 and still without a car. "It has been a wild ride, that’s for sure."
He set up a GoFundMe to recoup his losses. He raised $2,700 of his $3,500 goal as of Tuesday morning (December 14).
As for the alleged thief who went by Claudio Amador on Facebook, authorities are still looking for them. Anyone with information is asked to call Metro Denver Crime Stoppers at 720-913-7867.