Come on dealers... you can tell us. Who did it?
Can you imagine working at a dealership and having one clown ruin everything!
Today's paper:
October 23, 2009
Shores car salesman accused of defrauding elderly buyers
By LYDA LONGA
Staff Writer
For car salesman Daryl Rivernider, older women were prey, Daytona Beach Shores detectives said.
He certainly took 77-year-old Betty Hook for a ride.
"I can't believe we were stupid enough to buy a car from him," Hook said Thursday.
Investigators say the 63-year-old Rivernider is adept at selling defective cars to older women and not giving them title to the vehicles. He did it in Massachusetts, Daytona Beach Shores detective Brian Brueggemann said, and now police say he's done it in Daytona Beach Shores.
"He's been doing this for years," Brueggemann said Thursday.
Rivernider is on the lam and investigators have obtained two warrants for his arrest, charging him with scheme to defraud and violating the Florida Communications Fraud Act. Brueggemann said he believes the suspect could be in Broward County.
According to a charging affidavit, Rivernider sold cars that had flood damage or other problems. The suspect obtained his cars from Thompson Motors in Springfield, Pa. The latter would keep the titles until receiving money from Rivernider, the police report states.
Last December, Hook and her daughter saw an ad in The Daytona Beach News-Journal for a 2009 Toyota Corolla. They called Rivernider; he met them at his condo in Daytona Beach Shores on Dec. 3, and the women took a test drive, investigators said.
The suspect also provided Hook and her , Cindy Reyes, with a CARFAX document, but the information on the paperwork was for a different Toyota, police said. In fact, the car described in the CARFAX belongs to a man in Coconut Creek in Broward County, police said.
After the test drive, Hook and Reyes filled out paperwork, police said. At the time, Rivernider told the pair the car belonged to his godson who was in Iraq, the report shows.
The women plunked down $14,500 for the car, paying with a money order, a check and Reyes' credit card, Hook said. Rivernider promised he would then mail the title to Hook, she said.
But moments after Hook and Reyes left the suspect's residence, the women realized something was wrong with the car, the report shows.
"We took it to my brother-in-law's shop and he said the car had been involved in a wreck," Hook said. "We called Rivernider and he told us to take it to a mechanic he knows."
While the car was in the shop, Hook stopped payment on the check she gave Rivernider. When mother and daughter went to check on the Toyota, Rivernider's mechanic told them the suspect had hidden it, the report states.
When Hook canceled the stop-payment order on the check, Rivernider gave back the car, Hook said.
Not that it mattered.
For the last 10 months, Hook has been trying to get title to the car so she can get a tag and drive it. She had been unable to get Thompson Motors to send her the title -- owner David Ballek told Hook that Rivernider never paid him for the title. The Toyota sits idle in a secret location because Hook says she doesn't want Rivernider to find it.
Brueggemann said investigators are working with the Broward County Sheriff's Office to locate Rivernider. He believes there could be more victims in this area, after a second woman came forward Thursday.
Anyone who may have done business with Rivernider is asked to call Detective Karen Howard, 386-763-5347.
* Here is a recent picture of Rivernider.
Run Forest Run!