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City of Seattle
Gregory J. Nickels, Mayor
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NEWS ADVISORY
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| SUBJECT: Used Car Salesmen Arrested for Exploiting Vulnerable Adult
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
1/19/2007 1:00:00 PM |
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Jeff Kappel (206) 684-5520
Police Media Relations (206) 684-5520
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Used Car Salesmen Arrested for Exploiting Vulnerable Adult
SEATTLE – Troopers assigned to the King County Auto Theft unit have been busy. While investigating the theft of a BMW 530i, they uncovered a theft ring operating from within the Huling Brothers car dealership located in West Seattle. The stolen BMW had been originally purchased at the dealership in question. During their investigation, WSP detectives traveled to Chelan County to interview the suspect. Upon doing so, they learned that employees at Huling Brothers were committing additional crimes.
The WSP detectives contacted the Seattle Police Department and provided them with the information on the associated criminal activity. A thorough joint investigation revealed the following.
A 60-year-old man with a diminished mental capacity visited Huling Brothers car dealership on July 21st. The victim was covered in his own urine and feces. After looking around, he inquired about purchasing a $30,000 truck that he liked. The victim claimed to have enough cash to pay for the truck at his home, but needed a ride there to get it. At first, the salesman was skeptical. Nevertheless, the salesman drove the victim to his house. The victim went in and came out 10 minutes later with a sack full of $100 bills, $30,000 in all. When the salesman expressed surprise at the amount of cash, the victim made the mistake of telling him that he had over $70,000 more at his house.
The salesman sold the truck to the victim at the maximum price and included the most expensive warranty. The salesman did this even in spite of the victim’s visibly diminished mental state. After the victim left, the salesman bragged to his colleagues that the victim had stashed a large sum of money at his residence.
The next day, the victim unexpectedly returned to the dealership. He stated that his truck was towed or stolen and that he needed some help. The victim had actually parked it on Mercer Island. Due to his confusion, he had left it there and it was eventually impounded. Almost immediately, a plan was hatched. The salesman, an additional employee and the victim would travel to Mercer Island to pick up the truck, while the dealership’s sales manager, Adrian Dillard, and other employees would travel to the victim’s home in pairs of two to search for the $70,000. Dillard, who had apparently armed himself with a handgun, and Theodore E. Coxwell were the first to arrive. Together, they burglarized the home and stole approximately $70,000.
The second pair of employees arrived at nearly the same time as the third pair. The second pair told the third that they had just searched the victim’s apartment, but had been unable to find the money. The third pair also conducted an unsuccessful search. Two weeks later, another pair of employees attempted to burglarize the victim’s residence, only to discover that he had since been evicted. One of these two was making a return trip, since he had already burglarized the victim on July 22nd!
In the following days, the victim’s new truck was once more impounded, this time in Seattle. On July 27th, the victim placed a call to 911 to report that both his truck and his fortune were missing. The responding officer arrived to take the report and found the victim living in deplorable conditions. The apartment floor was literally covered with feces. The officer informed the victim that his car had been impounded, not stolen, and took a report regarding the stolen money. The officer also called for an ambulance to transport the victim to Harborview Medical Center (HMC) for a mental health evaluation.
While being held at HMC, the victim became concerned that his truck would be auctioned. The victim called the tow company to check on his truck. Although the company’s representatives insisted that they would not auction it, the victim remained fearful.
The victim telephoned the dealership and contacted Paul Rimbey, a salesman. Rimbey quickly devised a scheme to have the victim sign his truck over to him for the impound fee, plus a $300 ‘service charge’. Rimbey conspired with two other Huling Bothers salesmen to chip in enough money to get the truck out of impound. Rimbey then traveled to HMC with various documents for the victim to sign. The documents included a bill of sale, selling the brand new $30,000 pickup truck to Rimbey for $1,200! Rimbey obtained the services of a notary public on site, and the documents were notarized. Rimbey’s contract stated that if the victim failed to pay within 30 days, the bill of sale would take effect and the truck would become his.
Upon returning to the dealership, Rimbey realized that he had failed to have all of the plot’s necessary documents notarized at the hospital. He rectified this by asking a notary from the dealership to fraudulently notarize additional documents. Rimbey and the two other salesmen were banking on the victim’s failure to pay. They planned to sell the truck and then split the proceeds. During the time that the truck was in his possession, Rimbey drove it for 2000 miles. Rimbey even went so far as to re-title the truck into his name.
A total of 11 employees have played various roles to victimize this elderly and vulnerable adult for a total loss of $101, 200.
The status of the investigation is as follows.
- Three primary suspects have been taken into custody. Sales Manager Adrian Dillard was arrested on January 12th. He is a 32-year-old Normandy Park resident. He was booked into King County Jail (KCJ) for Investigation of Residential Burglary, Theft and Conspiracy. Salesman Theodore E. Coxwell was arrested on January 11th. He is a 39-year-old Edmonds resident and was also booked into KCJ for Investigation of Residential Burglary, Theft and Conspiracy. Salesman Paul R. Rimbey, a 39-year-old Seattle resident, was charged on January 16th for Investigation of Theft. Both Dillard and Coxwell were also charged on January 16th for their respective crimes.
- Detectives from both WSP and SPD are working with the King County Prosecutor’s Office to ensure that all of the suspects involved will be held responsible for their actions.
- The Huling Brothers car dealership has been cooperative throughout the entire investigation and has taken every step to insure that the involved employees are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Huling Brothers has even gone so far as to reimburse the victim for the $30,000 that he had paid for the truck..
- The victim did receive an evaluation at HMC. Due to his sickness, he was ultimately transferred to Western State Hospital. He is currently there, receiving treatment. .
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