When taking your car into the shop, you have to be careful to ensure you don’t get ripped off.

What would you do if the mechanic told you that several things were wrong in your vehicle that you knew for a fact were not?

That is what happened to the woman in this story, so she contacted the sheriff and had him arrested.

Check it out.

My car is unsafe to drive, and you can’t release it to me? Enjoy your arrest.

So yes, as you all see, I’m a nursing student.

I’m also 30, a military vet (Army), and have always, ALWAYS, done ~90% of the work on my vehicles.

The only things I can’t do are balance tires (I don’t have the tools) and some of the large work that requires things like cherry pickers and whatnot .

(Again, I don’t have the tools).

Like any good vehicle owner whose vehicle has sat for a long period of time without being driven: after getting back from a 6 month mobilization that left my little Toyota SR5 truck sitting in dry storage, I went through and did maintenance.

She really knows her stuff.

Checked and replaced my fan belts, air filters, spark plugs, oil and fuel filters, did an oil change and radiator flush, checked the battery and connections, checked my brake pads and alignment, swapped out my winter tires for summer tires, cleaned out my truck and replaced my winter survival gear with summer survival gear (because yes, that is a priority where I lived), etc.

Last but not least, I added injector treatment to my fuel tank, filled my tank, and took my truck to have the tires balanced by a Les Schwab tire place.

Now, because of other errands I had and because I had just spent 6 months in unpleasant sandy areas in uniform, I dressed up.

Heels, dress slacks, silk blouse, well-tailored jacket, hair up in a bun.

Dressed like that, I dropped my truck off, agreed that I needed the tires balanced and that was it, and was told that it would be about an hour.

Awesome.

I was about to walk off to go to my other errands down the block when I noticed through that big glass window the Les Schwab places have that they were already pulling my truck into the bay, so I decided to wait.

I would want to watch as well.

And being the interested person that I am, I watched as two guys started to pull my tires off my truck, and a third, the man who had taken my keys and agreed that I was only asking for my tires to be balanced, sat in the driver’s seat jotting down notes on a little notepad.

After about ten minutes, the third guy with the notepad came back inside and walked over to me and explained that, during his free assessment of my vehicle, he found a lot of safety issues that needed to be corrected.

“Like what?” I asked him.

“Well, it’s like this,” he responded.

And then proceeded to rattle off a list of ten or twelve items from his note pad that he had noticed in his “free assessment”.

Fan belt needs replaced, overdue for oil change and radiator flush, fuel and oil filters are shot and have to be replaced, brake pads are shot and have to be replaced, alignment is totally out of whack and ruined my tires, which now have to be replaced instead of just balanced.

Everything on his list were things I had just checked and/or replaced.

He ended with this:

This is a straight-up scam.

“I’m really sorry miss, but your vehicle is one big safety problem. I can’t release it to you to drive in the condition it’s currently in.”

Keep in mind, not only had I just done all this work, most of it on his list, but he had never once opened the hood of my truck.

You can’t look at the majority of what I have listed here, or that he had on his list, without opening the hood of the vehicle.

After a moment of consideration, I asked him how much he thought it would be to make it “road worthy”

He screwed up his face and did some “math” in his little notebook.

“A rough estimate? $3,700. But it could cost more because your vehicle is technically an import, and the parts can be hard to find.”

I asked to speak with the manager, and was told that the manager was “out for the day”.

Wow, he is really going to rip her off.

I then responded with: “So you’re telling me that, unless I get $3,700 worth of work done on my vehicle, you can’t release my vehicle to me, the rightful owner, because it isn’t safe or road worthy.”

“Yes.” He continued on with this babble of apologies and explanations in a sly, fakely apologetic condescending tone, and asked if there was anyone I could consult with about a repair this large, or if there was anyone who could give me a ride home.

I asked him to give me a couple of minutes, and walked out into the parking lot and got on my phone out of earshot from him or his mechanics, who were still balancing my tires.

And promptly got on the phone with the sheriff’s department.

When I explained everything to the officer, he promised to be out in fifteen minutes to help me “clear the matter up”.

I walked back inside and told that mechanic, with the sweetest smile I could conjure, that I would have someone here presently to help me with the matter.

I also asked him for the list of repairs needed along with his quote so I could discuss it with my “friend” who would be arriving shortly.

Nothing more than he deserves.

He happily handed me the evidence to his arrest and even signed his name on it for me, so that I could “get in contact with him if I needed more than today to consider the repairs and costs.”

The cherry on top of the whole thing was, the absent manager walked in just in time to see the employee get handcuffed, and I got a free tire balance service because of what the now former employee tried to pull.

I wonder how many other women he had taken advantage of like this.

It’s a good thing it really backfired this time.

Check out the comments below to see what other people have to say about it.

I bet they love it.

This person experienced a similar scam.

Wow, that is crazy.

This person has helped people avoid this type of scam.

This happens all too often.

Good, put this guy in jail.

And everyone like him while you’re at it.

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.