Rotisserie Special - How NOT to Trade in Your Car

From KHOU news in Houston, Texas:

Robbins Autoplex has been around since the 1930s. It is family-owned and operated. The Humble dealership has weathered many storms, but none like the case of veteran employee Tobias Green. Green was arrested early Wednesday on charges of burning cars for customers. He is charged with arson and insurance fraud.

As 11 News first reported, Green allegedly called his scheme the “rotisserie special.” Investigators say he’d torch cars for customers, but there was a catch. They had to agree to use the insurance money to buy a new vehicle from him.

“We believe he is approaching everybody, for the most part, who is upside down in their car and has good insurance,” said HFD arson investigator Scott Clemants. “If they have good insurance, than he talks to them about his deal in a backroom.”

Clemants said they once watched Green in the act. “The suspect had come into the location with another female and intentionally set a car on fire,” Clemants said.

Before joining Robbins, Green was a police officer in Ames and Liberty counties. Investigators believe that experience may have taught him how to make the arson fires look like an accident to fool adjusters.

They point out that arson schemes drive up the cost of insurance for everyone else.

Some people are desperate to make a sale. If he was willing to do this to entice a sale, what made the people he was working with think he was being honest with them? Would you buy a car from a guy who was willing to do this? Almost like the Nigeria Scam you realize it takes 2 dishonest people for the scam to work. Let’s not just hope we never run into anyone this clever or desperate to sell us something but pray that it is not tempting for us to participate.