http://www.siskiyoudaily.com/news/x907387807/Many-questions-arise-over-YAC-incident

Many questions arise over YAC incident.Zoom Photos. Jamie Gentner.The Yreka Auto Center Service and Wash center has been closed since cars were taken from the car lot on Aug. 26. Owner Steve Long said the decision to keep the businesses closed came when he was told any cars he tried to sell on the lot would be taken, and he didn’t want to take any chances of anything happening at the other two YAC branches.


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Siskiyou Daily News

Posted Sep 13, 2010 @ 08:39 AM

Yreka, Calif. — It’s been almost three weeks since cars disappeared from the Yreka Auto Center lot on Main Street in Yreka. Nineteen days after the event, there are still questions about what happened and different sides of the story to be heard.

Yreka Auto Center

When YAC owner Steve Long showed up for work Thursday, Aug. 26, almost every car that had been on the lot was gone and the door to the office was ajar, he said.

Long called the Yreka Police Department to report the cars stolen. He received a call back informing him that the cars had been repossessed, Long said.

He had received an e-mail the Monday before, but he didn’t get around to reading it until days later. The e-mail was from Express Auto Funding, the bank from which YAC had borrowed money for several of the cars on the lot. The e-mail demanded payment of $346,000 on eight cars by Wednesday or Long would be put in default.

But Long wondered several things: how had the company gotten hold of the keys for the cars? And why had they taken almost every car on the lot – including some belonging to local residents that were on consignment or in for service?

Long said he was told that the local man who repossessed the cars for Express Auto Funding, Nolan Henry, had told police that Long had given him the keys for the cars the night before. But when he left at around 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Long said, the keys were locked in the closet as usual. He also said a cleaning lady who left around 7 p.m. reported that the keys were in the closet – which is where all her supplies are kept – when she left.

“If I had handed him the keys Wednesday night, why did he come at 3 in the morning for the cars?” Long said. “And why would I have given him the keys to every car?”

The police had told Long that Henry had called around 3 a.m. Thursday morning to tell them he took the cars and would look into which cars he needed to return, Long said.

A police officer had been there that morning, Long said, and Henry wasn’t stopped.

In the days that followed, Long said he retained an attorney and had several meetings with YPD Chief Brian Bowles and Lt. Dave Gamache.

But the police wouldn’t take any stolen car reports, Long said, because they determined the case was civil and not criminal. Instead, Long and the individuals seeking their cars should get ahold of Henry directly, Long said he was told.

He discovered that the cars had been taken to a ranch in Montague before being shipped to Fresno and Bakersfield, Calif.

“There are people who have their titles but don’t have their cars anymore,” Long said. “I’m not concerned about the YAC cars; I’m concerned about the 18 cars that belong to our customers that were taken.”

While working to help those individuals figure out how to get their cars back, Long said he and his staff were also trying to regroup and figure out how to stay open.

“We were told if we put cars on the lot again, they would be taken,” Long said. “So we weren’t going to take any chances until we get this settled.”

So the lot and the service center and car wash across the street remained closed – though Long has remained at the lot to field questions.

Long said he knows of a few people who have received their car. But he was told the rest of the cars would be back Wednesday, and they weren’t.

“The District Attorney’s Office says the case is civil so they can’t issue warrants, and the police say it’s civil so they can’t arrest anyone,” Long said. “They say he isn’t ‘permanently depriving’ people of their cars.”

But Long said he questions whether the parties involved have something to do with why the police won’t take action.

“I feel like I’m in a different country. ... How this went down, how the police and district attorney won’t get involved – I don’t know how all this works, but it doesn’t smell right. It doesn’t feel right,” Long said. “The character of a vehicle doesn’t change whether it’s on my lot or at someone’s house. You can’t take someone’s car.”

Long said he has never seen a repossession handled like this in his 25 years in the car business. Had it been handled differently and had the police gotten more involved from the beginning, Long continued, three businesses would still be open.

“I don’t know how more to help my customers,” Long said. “Now I’ve got to figure out what, as a business, to do and where to go.”

Finance Company

Henry was contacted several times for comment, but Express Auto Funding would only issue a prepared statement.

In the statement received Friday, the company states that it made loans to Yreka Auto Center so it could buy cars to sell on its lot.

“Several months ago, Yreka Auto stopped making payments on these loans. Now it has been discovered that Yreka Auto is guilty of several serious violations of contract,” the statement reads. “In response, Express Auto Funding took lawful steps to obtain possession of certain Yreka Auto vehicles. ... Express Auto Funding regrets the harm done by Yreka Auto to Yreka customers.”

When contacted by the Daily News for further comment regarding repossession procedures, why a list was not used so only YAC cars were taken and why several individuals had not received their cars back 16 days later, Express Auto Director David Lachtman said the company had no further comment.

The police

Bowles said the YPD got more involved in this case than they would normally get involved in a civil case. All their information on the case has now been turned over to the district attorney.

He called the situation a “mess” and said his department has spent an “extensive amount of time” trying to solve the situation at a community level.

In contrast to Long’s statement, Bowles said anyone who has requested to make a report has been allowed to do so.

But it doesn’t appear Henry was stealing any vehicles.

“If he was stealing the vehicles, he wouldn’t call the police department. You have to have intent to permanently deprive,” Bowles said. “This was a creditor collecting assets from a business. ... He said he will release the vehicles he’s not supposed to have.”

With that in mind, Bowles said, he doesn’t want to make any false arrests.

“We don’t want to intrude on someone’s rights, but yet we want to protect potential victims,” Bowles said. “So we’re still continuing to help people get in contact with him.”

He has been told that all but a few cars have been returned to their owners, Bowles said. But there has been some questions about whether cars that were on the lot on consignment had been signed over to YAC, so there was an extensive effort to determine which cars belonged to whom.

A look at the consignment form sellers sign revealed there’s no act of signing over a title or rights to YAC.

The police have to look at the physical evidence available in a case, Bowles said.

A police officer was called out that morning, requested by Henry, to check the premises before he left, Bowles said. This is a common practice to ensure owners don’t try to pin damage on a repossessor, he said. And there was no physical evidence of forced entry at that time.

In addition, Bowles said, a look at the contract involved reveals that Express Auto has the authority to take assets if balances are unpaid.

“Can keys be considered an asset?” Bowles said.

He dismissed the idea that the police aren’t getting involved because of the parties involved.

“I was told when I took this job that I could arrest anyone who has committed a crime – it doesn’t matter if that means arresting the mayor, city council members, law officers,” he said. “Otherwise, I wouldn’t have taken this oath. My department knows that if you do the crime you do the time.”

But while there appears to be some bad business practices and some tricky situations in the mix, for now, there has been no determination that a crime has been committed, he said.

Bowles said that he, too, has not seen a case like this in 20 years.

He encouraged any individuals who have not received their car and who believe it to be stolen to file a report with the police department, and he said that it’s now just a matter of waiting to see what happens.

District attorney

District Attorney Kirk Andrus said his office has taken on the role of mediator in this case.

“There may be a criminal case some day, but knowing whose vehicles these are is a prerequisite to a criminal investigation,” Andrus said.

He said several people have come forward with proof of ownership for their vehicle and there has been an effort to return those vehicles.

Any vehicles that have not already been returned, Andrus said, are expected to be returned this week.

And to this point, the case is civil, Andrus said, because of intent.

“When you talk about criminal intent, if a person did something because they felt legally entitled to, it’s not a crime,” he said. “They might be wrong, and in that case it would be up to a civil court to determine who’s right and wrong. But it’s not a criminal matter when someone truly believes they are right. ... It does have to be reasonable, though.”

Andrus said he has no indication that YPD is not taking reports or is not getting involved when they should be.

“I have not noticed any amount of prejudging who is right and who is wrong or the police giving the benefit of the doubt to anybody,” he said. “People can feel confident that the Yreka Police Department has handled this the best they can.”

His department has not ruled out the possibility of a crime having been committed, Andrus said.

“What we’re doing right now is trying to solve problems and make people’s lives easier,” he said. “This dispute has interrupted people’s personal and business lives.”

Customer

One resident whose life has been affected is Mike Harris, who said his daughter’s car was on the lot for repairs when the cars were taken.

As of Thursday afternoon, he had not received the car and he had not been able to file a stolen vehicle report, he told the Daily News.

His finance company had called and told him he would have the car last week, Harris said. When he didn’t get it back, he said he talked to Henry, whom he said told him he didn’t know where his car is.

Andrus said his records indicate there are issues with that car, but there was no record of contact from Harris.

Andrus added that the promised return of cars is an important event in this case. Once that is done, or is not done, more will be known about how to proceed.



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