Kinda on topic but here's my scamming story. Pull up a chair and have a drink, this one will take awhile.
So in 1992 I come off my year long tour in Korea. I was a poor kid and we had grown up in a 1 bedroom house - my dad slept on a pull out sofa in the living room and my brother and I shared a bedroom. So flush with an Army job and easy-to-get credit I wanted something I hadn't had growing up: A nice fucking car.
I scour the local auto trader classifieds, in the book you had to pay $2.00 for or whatever, and find a 1964 and a half red Ford Mustang Convertible, V-8, Q code, with a white top and interior at a price I can afford a monthly payment since I'm living in the barracks at the 82d. My grandmother co-signs and I'm off to the races in my first nice car.
FFd about a year and a half and it starts blowing blue smoke. Now back then I could barely do more than change spark plugs. My dad wasn't mechanically inclined and also couldn't afford tools. In the interim of buying it and it starting to go bad I had made friends at the barracks and had taken it to the on-base auto shop to change oil, do basics, etc, but obviously a rebuild was far beyond my skillset.
I forget how I found a guy, but I found a guy to rebuild the motor for a price we agreed upon. I was deploying to South America for a training and would be gone 8-10 weeks, I forget, but enough time to rebuild a Ford motor. I paid him 3/4 upfront because he obviously needed to buy the parts, etc, etc.
So while I'm deployed I call him maybe weekly? Everything's going great, motor is out, it's apart, it's fine. About a week before I'm to return when I call I get his wife, who tells me the motor fell on him and he's hurt and can't work on it, but it's just a few bruised ribs and it should be done when I return.
I get back. No contact for a couple weeks. No return calls. I'm without a car and he finally gets back in touch, tells me some bullshit or other, and loans me a piece of shit Ford Mustang II so I can at least drive around base and not be out a car.
Couple weeks go by and he's less and less in contact, then his car dies on the side of the road. I call him, leave a message his car is fucking dead, where it is, keys under the mat and I want my damned car back or I'm suing.
Nothing.
So I go to try and find my car. I locate a garage where he had claimed he was working and me and my buddy see the car under a cover in the garage. No one answers so we leave (no cell phones back then) and call the cops and tell them my now-stolen car is at a place and I want it back. Cop meets us there a couple hours later and by the time we are there the car has been moved. Randy FuckYouInTheAss Morgan is there and claims the car was never there, it's at his other garage and is done and I need to come pick it up but he hasn't been able to get in touch with me plus I owe him for his piece of shit Ford Mustang II which I clearly broke. Cop now realizes this is a civil matter and can't do shit since I had originally given him money to work on my car, so it isn't stolen. Cop leaves. Buddy gets me in the car before I end up in prison.
no contact for weeks.
I'm driving around and I spy, by chance, my car in a junkyard. It's late, and the junkyard/side of the road car repair shop is closed so I climb the fence, notice my car is in shit condition, no motor, tree had fallen on a fender, the knock offs were gone, etc, but the VIN is mine.
Same buddy and I come back at midnight, cut the lock to the fence (this is important), and drag my car out and get it to my house.
I scrape some money together to engage a lawyer to sue his ass. In the interim I am served with a summons to appear in civil court for damaging his property and stealing a car from him.
I can't afford to pay the lawyer to appear for me on this case since I could barely afford to pay for him to sue Randy for what he did to my car so I represent myself:
Day of court randy is representing himself in small claims court, says I had knocked down his fence, kicked in the front door, and smashed the windows of a number of cars and then took my own car which I still owed money for. All lies.
My turn. I call him to the stand. I question him on the car's timeline, he states I never paid. I pull out a cancelled check from my bank and the original contract (I was smart enough to get him to sign a rudimentary contract) to rebuild the motor, which was now over a year ago. So he has now on record of having lied. Then I ask him if I smashed his gate to get my own car back. He again states I did and he had pictures where a gate had been torn off the hinges and dragged around, destroying the rest of the fence etc.
Me: So you're saying that I pulled this gate off of the hinges and now owe you $5000 for a new gate and fence?
Randy: Yes. The photos clearly show the damage you did to my property.
Me: And the gate was locked, that's why I couldn't get my car out?
Randy: Yes, the gate was locked.
Me: What kind of lock was on the gate? Combination? Key?
Randy: Keyed lock.
Me: Do you have the key to the lock? You have a keychain there, is the key to the lock on the keychain?
Randy......(silence)
Judge: Mr. Morgan, do you have the key to the lock on your keychain?
Randy: Yes your honor.
Me: Then can you please tell me if any of the keys on that keychain fit into this lock? (at which point I pull his lock out of my pocket, a lock I had used bolt cutters to cut and remove and I kept)
Randy: Silence
Judge: Mr. Morgan is that your lock?
Randy: Silence
Judge: Mr. Morgan is that your lock and does one of the keys on your keychain fit that lock?
Randy: That appears to be my lock.
Me: Mr. Morgan, if I clearly cut the lock to your gate, why would I then rip the gate off of the hinges to get my car out? It's clear I cut the lock, opened the gate and dragged my car out. I also have a witness who pulled my car to my house after I cut the lock.
Randy: You may have cut the lock but you then ripped the ga...
Judge: I am going to remind you you are under oath. In fact I am going to dismiss this case right here and now. Mr Morgan I understand there is a civil suit for the damages and work not performed on the defendant's vehicle and this case will be admitted on the record for that case, I will make sure of it. Case dismissed.
Courtroom erupts in laughter.
FFd another few months - we go to court, he has all the excuses, Judge rules for Triple Damages (NC Law) for my vehicle, etc, etc etc.
His cunt wife after it's over screams at me "Fuck you, we will declare bankruptcy and you'll never see a dime!"
Pretty much end of story. Insurance gave me a little bit, I sold off the body for parts.
Last I heard Randy Morgan, formerly of Fayetteville, NC, had moved to Florida and declared bankruptcy. I never heard from him again.
If I ever find him though I'm still going to stomp a mudhole in his ass.
hijack over.