Bowling Green Police found a stolen car Saturday that appeared to be sold twice to unwitting buyers.
The car, a white Dodge Charger with a Virginia license plate, was spotted by a police license plate camera on East Wooster Street at Interstate 75.
The vehicle was found in the parking lot of an apartment complex. Police in Maryland confirmed that the Charger was stolen on March 28. Some of the owner’s mail was found in the trunk of the car.
A man taken into custody said he had just purchased the Dodge on Saturday in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. He said he found the car for sale on Facebook Marketplace, and met the seller at a gas station, paying $22,500 for the car.
The seller reportedly took a license plate off the car, then took a plate out of the trunk and put it on the car – telling the buyer that he could drive with that plate until he got it registered.
The buyer showed Bowling Green Police a Virginia Motor Vehicle Bill of Sale and a Virginia DMV Certificate of Title in the car. The seller said the name on the paperwork was the man he bought the car from to “flip it.”
The buyer said that before agreeing to buy the car, he ran an online vehicle report of the VIN# on the Dodge Charger. The vehicle report came back clean. He was able to show BGPD the vehicle report, as well as the Facebook Messenger conversation between him and the seller.
Police determined the buyer legitimately bought the car, not knowing that it was a stolen vehicle.
The car was seized by police.
During a search of the car, an officer noticed there was no VIN# on the inside of the door panel. The VIN# in the engine compartment was different than the VIN# on the dashboard. Dispatch ran the second VIN#, which also came back as a stolen 2020 Dodge Charger. That vehicle was reported stolen on Aug. 29, 2022, to Fairfax County Police Department in Virginia.
BGPD contacted the owner of the Charger in Maryland – whose mail was in the trunk. He said he purchased the car in October 2022 from a private seller, who he met in a hotel parking lot. The officer advised him that the car had been recovered in Bowling Green, and was being held as evidence. Police also advised him that it was possible the car was a stolen vehicle when he purchased it.
