An army veteran bought his wife a $68,000 Maserati on Carvana as a birthday gift only to later discover that the SUV was stolen.
Jason Scott of Moore County, North Carolina bought the Maserati in November of 2022 from the online used car retailer Carvana. Scott bought the SUV as a birthday gift for his wife and paid the retailer a down payment plus two monthly payments before discovering the SUV was stolen while getting the vehicle serviced in February.
Scott described the feeling he had while purchasing the 2021 vehicle and waiting for it to be delivered.
“It was exciting for it to be coming down the hill,” he said. “Waiting for it outside, everything was fine.”
Scott took the car to get serviced at a Maserati dealership a few months later, and a technician found that some parts for the SUV did not match the year of the VIN number. The dealership was able to determine that the Maserati was actually a 2017 model, not a 2021 model as the paperwork for Carvana states.
“That’s when they found out that the vehicle was stolen,” said Scott. “When they check the VIN number on the chassis, that’s when they saw that it was a stolen vehicle. VIN on the car on the window and the car door was different.”
The dealership called the police, and they questioned Scott, who provided them with proof that he’d purchased the vehicle on Carvana. The police allowed him to leave but kept the Maserati.
Scott immediately called Carvana to get his money back, but he was told nothing could be done until he returned the Maserati. After the Army veteran told Carvana that he could not return the vehicle because it had been impounded by the police, he said the retailer was unresponsive.
“She said, ‘Well, we can’t trade the vehicle back in until you bring the vehicle back.’ I said ‘I can’t bring the vehicle back.’ I said ‘the police have the vehicle.’ They wasn’t responding back to anything at all.”
Carvana did respond after ABC11 News reported on the car theft scam and claimed they were taking steps to rectify the situation for Scott.
“When Carvana acquired this vehicle, someone had taken sophisticated criminal steps to steal and alter the vehicle, and we’re taking all the necessary steps to make it right for our customer in this rare instance.”
Scott hired an attorney who sent the retailer a letter demanding $1 million and a public apology to compensate Scott for his financial loss as well as his embarrassment and loss to his reputation.
Carvana responded to the letter claiming that the retailer had no prior knowledge of the Maserati being stolen and apologized to Scott. The company offered Scott a refund or credit of the money he’d already spent to use on another Carvana vehicle plus $1,000.
Scott says he worries about a similar situation happening to an oblivious person being pulled over late at night and treated like a criminal, and he wants Carvana not to sell stolen vehicles to prevent it.
“I know they say they have 150-point inspections. I want them to have 151. Check to see if the vehicle is stolen,” he said. “The last thing I want anybody to do is to get caught late at night on some strange road in the backcountry, and they can’t verify it and they look at that person as a criminal.”
The North Carolina Attorney General’s Office currently has at least 130 complaints about the car retailer, but none so far involves stolen vehicles.
Scott wants all of his money back plus $1 million in compensation.
