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Worse is the cops say nothing they can do 
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A Sacramento County man is warning others after he says he was tricked while selling his sports car and lost thousands of dollars.
David Meljie said he posted his 2004 Chevy Corvette for sale on Facebook Marketplace late last month.
He said he loved that car and kept it in mint condition, but he said he sold it because he needed the cash.
“Brand-new tires. Rims. The car was immaculate,” Meljie said.
Within about a week, he said a man contacted him asking to buy the car at a pretty reduced rate. Meljie agreed and dropped the price from $18,700 to $14,500.
On Friday, February 28, he said that the man came with three others to buy the car. Meljie took them for a short test drive and said he was shocked to see the engine smoking when they got back.
“It passed smog two days earlier. And then now all of a sudden, there's something wrong with the car?” he said.
“I babied the car. The car was like immaculate, always serviced.”
When they checked under the hood, he said there was oil everywhere.
He said he later learned, through the surveillance video in his shop, that those men had put the oil there themselves while one of them distracted him.
“I have them pouring the oil over the motor, into my radiator, and holding tank of the antifreeze,” he said.
The men then told him the car would need thousands of dollars in repairs.
“After the hood went up, and I saw the oil, my brain short-circuited, and you go into shock,” he said.
Meljie said it was part of a trick to get him to sell the car at a lower price. And he did, sell it for only $3,000.
“I was stressed, and I felt pressured and didn't know what to do,” Meljie said.
“It just hurts. The community needs to be safe and there's got to be a way to fix this.
That's my main concern is to make sure no one else gets violated like I did.”
Meljie filed a report with the Sacramento County Sheriff's Office, but they said there is not a lot they can do in a case like this.
“It's very easy to want some punitive action taken, but it really, by and large, is a civil matter," Amar Gandhi with the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office said.
"We just urge people to take caution if this is not something that's in your wheelhouse of expertise, pay that little bit of extra money, employ the use of an expert in that field."
Gandhi recommends if you're making a big private sale like that, don't do it alone, find a public place, and maybe even consider surveillance video.
And if someone is pressuring to sell for a very low price—you can always say no.
"If something doesn't feel right, back out. You have that right. And that's one of the best parts about this country. You have that freedom of choice. You don't have to go through with the transaction because someone's making you.
Furthermore, you have that choice to back out, or you have a choice to proceed," Gandhi said.
Meljie said he knows it's probably too late for him, but he hopes others can learn from his experience.
!A Sacramento County man is warning others after he says he was tricked while selling his sports car and lost thousands of dollars.
David Meljie said he posted his 2004 Chevy Corvette for sale on Facebook Marketplace late last month.
He said he loved that car and kept it in mint condition, but he said he sold it because he needed the cash.
“Brand-new tires. Rims. The car was immaculate,” Meljie said.
Within about a week, he said a man contacted him asking to buy the car at a pretty reduced rate. Meljie agreed and dropped the price from $18,700 to $14,500.
On Friday, February 28, he said that the man came with three others to buy the car. Meljie took them for a short test drive and said he was shocked to see the engine smoking when they got back.
“It passed smog two days earlier. And then now all of a sudden, there's something wrong with the car?” he said.
“I babied the car. The car was like immaculate, always serviced.”
When they checked under the hood, he said there was oil everywhere.
He said he later learned, through the surveillance video in his shop, that those men had put the oil there themselves while one of them distracted him.
“I have them pouring the oil over the motor, into my radiator, and holding tank of the antifreeze,” he said.
The men then told him the car would need thousands of dollars in repairs.
“After the hood went up, and I saw the oil, my brain short-circuited, and you go into shock,” he said.
Meljie said it was part of a trick to get him to sell the car at a lower price. And he did, sell it for only $3,000.
“I was stressed, and I felt pressured and didn't know what to do,” Meljie said.
“It just hurts. The community needs to be safe and there's got to be a way to fix this.
That's my main concern is to make sure no one else gets violated like I did.”
Meljie filed a report with the Sacramento County Sheriff's Office, but they said there is not a lot they can do in a case like this.
“It's very easy to want some punitive action taken, but it really, by and large, is a civil matter," Amar Gandhi with the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office said.
"We just urge people to take caution if this is not something that's in your wheelhouse of expertise, pay that little bit of extra money, employ the use of an expert in that field."
Gandhi recommends if you're making a big private sale like that, don't do it alone, find a public place, and maybe even consider surveillance video.
And if someone is pressuring to sell for a very low price—you can always say no.
"If something doesn't feel right, back out. You have that right. And that's one of the best parts about this country. You have that freedom of choice. You don't have to go through with the transaction because someone's making you.
Furthermore, you have that choice to back out, or you have a choice to proceed," Gandhi said.
Meljie said he knows it's probably too late for him, but he hopes others can learn from his experience.
