Five dollars doesn’t get you much these days, but one Florida man used the money to purchase at least four different luxury vehicles.
According to WFLA, Keith Greene opened a checking account with Navy Federal Credit Union using a $5 (£3.80 / €4.37) deposit. After the account was opened, he went on a shopping spree using bad checks.
Among his purchases were a Mercedes and Range Rover that were ‘bought’ from Cars Inc. in Tampa using two checks which were supposed to be worth more than $40,000 (£30,399 / €34,995). Greene also purchased another Mercedes and an Infiniti model from Lokey Infiniti in Clearwater. According to police, the total worth of the vehicles was around $200,000.
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The scam didn’t last very long as the dealerships quickly discovered the checks were worthless when they went to deposit them. However, Greene tried to keep the ruse going by remaining in contact with at least one of the dealers. As Cars Inc’s Judd Cook explained, “He stayed in touch with me, via text messages, for six weeks saying he was going to take care of it.” Of course, Greene didn’t have any intention to pay for the vehicles.
The Infiniti dealer apparently contacted police and Greene was eventually arrested. WFLA now says he faces charges of scheme to defraud and obtaining a vehicle with intent to defraud. This means Greene could be facing thousands of dollars in fines and more than a decade behind bars.
Three of the vehicles have been found and returned, while one from the Infiniti dealership remains missing. Despite the good news, Cook said the paperwork still hasn’t been sorted out so he doesn’t the cars properly titled. As a result, the dealership can’t sell them until the issues are sorted out.