The American Repossessor

BALTIMORE — Law-enforcement officials are investigating who was behind a reported auto-theft ring spanning two counties and hundreds of used cars.

Fairfield County sheriff’s deputies and members of the Ohio Highway Patrol executed a search warrant at 2630 Musser Road, where 59 used cars were seized. No arrests were made Monday.

Fairfield County Sheriff Dave Phalen said the cars were fraudulently obtained by a Pataskala used-car dealer. The Eagle-Gazette will not identify the business or its owner unless charges are filed.

“This is a pretty sophisticated operation that has been going on for at least a year,” Phalen said.

Phalen said the Ohio Highway Patrol’s Vehicle Theft Division is leading the investigation. Since the alleged wrongdoing happened in Licking County, authorities there would be responsible for any prosecution.

However, Licking County Sheriff Randy Thorp, Pataskala Police Chief Chris Forshey and Licking County Prosecutor Ken Oswalt said they weren’t aware of the investigation before it showed up in media reports.

Phalen said the business is a buy-here, pay-here lot. He said it is believed that legitimate customers would buy cars and make their payments to the dealer, but the dealer would pocket the money and not pay the creditor. The bank would issue repossession orders.

Phalen said the dealership would then repossess the cars and hide them from the lenders, telling them the cars could not be found.

He said the dealer altered the titles and resold the vehicles to unsuspecting customers.

The owner of the Pataskala car lot was unavailable for comment Monday.

Phalen said between 200 and 300 cars may have been involved the scheme, making it likely that people are unknowingly driving fraudulent cars.

“If they bought it there, I would say yeah, I’d be very concerned,” Phalen said.

Many of the cars will be turned over to the banks who own them. The others will be impounded until the rightful owners are found.

Phalen said the owner of the Musser Road property said he was unaware the cars were stolen.

The vehicles were located last week when a Fairfield County sheriff’s deputy pulled over a car that had a dealer plate of a Lancaster used car lot that had gone out of business.

Phalen said the driver pulled in to the driveway of the Musser Road property, where the deputy discovered more than 50 vehicles parked in the field. He said there is “probably” some connection between the driver and the theft ring.

The owner of the property could not be reached for comment Monday.

Sgt. Jim Mendenhall of the Ohio Highway Patrol said the next step is to review the titles of the vehicles seized and look for discrepancies or alterations. He said he had not seen a car theft ring of this magnitude.

“We are still early in the process, and we need to get all the information from the titles to put it all together,” Mendenhall said.

Lt. Gary Kennedy, commander of the Fairfield County Sheriff’s detective bureau, said the banks were the biggest victims of the theft ring.

“They knew these vehicles were out there, but they didn’t know where to look at,” Kennedy said.

He said in these types of cases, it can be hard for sometime to protect themselves from becoming a victim.

“You know you trust that a business is reputable and will do the right thing, and that’s not always the case,” he said.

CentralOhio.com Reporter Jessie Balmert contributed to this story.