- A dealership employee faces jail-time after carjacking a customer over a missed payment
- Details of the loan – on a 2020 Honda Accord – are murky thanks to mislaid paperwork
- The carjacking happened late 2023 in Florida, and saw the employee brandish a gun at the customer
In this latest instalment of Dealers Behaving Badly, a Florida man (where else?) has been convicted by a federal jury for carjacking a customer because of a missed payment. Evidence presented at the trial asserted the victim, a 24-year-old immigrant from Haiti, bought a 2020 Honda Accord from an outfit called Guru Auto Sales in late 2023. Paperwork for that deal seems to have been shrouded in a bit of secrecy, with the victim claiming they were never given a copy of the sales agreement before driving away. This is the first red flag.
The second red flag is tossed up when it is revealed the car lot allegedly insinuated the buyer would be making payments directly to a financial institution instead of, at least initially, through a third party (read: the dealership). The customer unfortunately bounced on the first payment, but made that right by paying it and a late fee — it sounds like it could have been an issue with autopay.
Nevertheless, the dealership was sent a letter in mid-December by the bank saying it’d have to buy out the loan for its balance because of the missed payment. However, it seems the dealership was expressly told it was not allowed to repossess the car at this point.
Five days later, the customer now in good standing on the loan, Erik Hadad, an associate with Guru Auto Sales, caught up with the customer after following them to a red light. At that point, Hadad ripped off the car’s temporary tag and chased the victim to another stop, where he screamed at him to get out of the car whilst flashing a gun tucked into his waistband. The customer had apparently never previously met Hadad, but the gun had the desired effect, and he got out and handed Hadad the keys.
A call to police saw cops show up and arrest Hadad, who was found with a loaded Smith & Wesson pistol. Flash-forward to October 2024, and Hadad’s been judged guilty of carjacking, and awaiting sentencing in early January.
A cursory glance online reveals a long-dormant Facebook page for Guru Auto Sales which appears to be the same business, one littered with bad feedback including words like ‘dishonest’, ‘horrible’, and criminals. The official Google entry for what seems like the same outfit is similarly dour, and lists the place as permanently closed.
Folks blessed with the gift of numeracy may be interested to know the only two details made public from the original note: the first is the $13,800 the financial institution paid for the loan. After just one payment, the one which was missed but then rectified, the balance was down to $13,000 — suggesting the customer agreed to pay $800 a month. While we won’t dive into a lesson on the potential financial chicanery at so-called Buy-Here-Pay-Here used car lots, it is safe to assume the customer agreed to pay Guru Auto Sales a lot more than $13,800 for what was then a three-year-old Accord. Remember, the customer allegedly was never given paperwork of the deal.
Stay vigilant, readers.
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