Cars are Being Dumped in South Florida Canals – It Makes No Sense
Even if you’re the most honest of people in the world, with the way that these fraudsters and criminals navigate through the system, there is a way that you could legally purchase a car and end up owning a stolen car for yourself. It’s a terrifying thing to think about because if it’s discovered that you’re behind the wheel of the stolen car, even one purchased and documented legally, you could be subject to not only lose your ride but also to not be compensated for the mixup by your insurance company.
This time, we take a trip down to southern Florida with a news report that describes a phenomenon that has been becoming more and more common as insurance fraud with cars dumped in canals is being linked with stolen cars that are then resold to the public. If you’re confused, don’t worry because I was too at first but in a second, all of this will come together and make sense.
Just about every other day down in this area, a car is dumped into the canal and whoever was behind the wheel, whether it was an accident or not, receives their insurance money. Now, at this point, the cars are pretty much useless except for the scrap metal on board and they’re delivered to a junkyard that will be able to get the value from that metal. From a junkyard, anyone can buy the car for just a couple of hundred dollars which is about the value that it will be scrapped for. This is where the criminals come in and purchase the car for their own evildoing.
From there, I would assume that pretty much the whole car is discarded other than the VIN number, a plate that identifies each car in particular, kind of like the car’s unique fingerprint. The criminal then hits the streets, looking for a car that matches the description that they can steal and swap out the VIN information on. Essentially, what’s happening, is a car that’s stolen is being rebadged as one that has a salvage title that was ripped off of the car that was sitting at the bottom of the canal. Investigators say that it could take police months before they even discover this fact, leaving a whole bunch of people out a whole bunch of money.
The video below spells out the entire situation for you, showing how people can go from committing insurance fraud and collecting money to stealing a car and pawning it off as the one that was sitting at the bottom of the canal, all without the buyer knowing any different. It’s not clear how they’re going to put a stop to this situation but one thing is certain – It’s something that needs to be solved sooner than later.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KDM2mQX0i0
