Recently a Westminster Police Department detective and his partners, assigned to OCATT (Orange County Auto Theft Taskforce), were investigating a stolen vehicle that had been purchased by an innocent buyer.

The suspect(s) stole the truck, switched the license plates and displayed a fraudulent VIN on the vehicle. They advertised the stolen vehicle as their own vehicle on Offer Up (an online marketplace) for much lower than it was actually worth.

An innocent party paid the suspect for the vehicle because they didn’t know it was stolen and the fraudulent plates and VIN appeared to be legitimate to them.

The vehicle was recovered and returned to the victim.

The Seal Beach Police helped with the vehicle stop.

As the old saying goes, “If the deal is too good to be true, it probably is.”