A man in Paragould, Arkansas, has been arrested in connection with an alleged fake repossession scheme. According to the police, the man, the second person arrested in the case, repossessed a woman’s $30,000 Ford Bronco and later bought it for $2,600.
As reported by KAIT8, the incident occurred back on April 2. At the time, Rafael Salinas and Heather Patterson, owner of Prestige Towing, came to an unnamed woman’s house, the Paragould Police Department (PPD) said.
The couple had arrived at the home to repossess the woman’s 2023 Ford Bronco. Believing that the repossession was legitimate, the woman reportedly gave Patterson the key to her vehicle.
However, as police said, the woman did find the interaction odd. According to her, Patterson had previously stopped by her home and expressed interest in her Bronco.
Bronco No More
Shortly after, the woman saw the SUV in the company’s tow yard. However, she would later find her vehicle in possession of Salinas, who posted a photo of it online, as an affidavit previously cited by KAIT8 detailed.
PPD officers later spoke with the woman’s lien company. According to the police department, no repossession order had been issued before Salinas and Patterson drove away with the Ford Bronco.
Furthermore, court documents show that, according to the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration (ADFA), Salinas had purchased the vehicle from Prestige Towing. Allegedly, the vehicle, which was registered under a fake vehicle identification number (VIN), had been sold for $2,600.
PPD detectives also found through the ADFA that Patterson had allegedly claimed that the vehicle had been abandoned and “was a water recovery.”
Findings
The police department secured a search warrant on Patterson’s home and executed it. In total, 16 Prestige Towing folders were seized.
Inside, police said they found bills of sale that listed purchase prices way below market value. In the woman’s case, a contradicting bill was later found in Salinas’ possession, which allegedly said that he had purchased the Ford Bronco for $4,450, not $2,600 as ADFA records showed.
PPD’s Cpl. Johnathon Porter detailed that authorities found 89 instances where Prestige Towing had filed out tow slips and notices that the vehicle had been towed at the request of Greene County Dispatch. Porter wrote in his report that no records of the towing requests were found within dispatch’s reporting software and that Prestige Towing “has not been on rotation for all of Greene County since Jan. 30, 2023.”
The woman is also accused of forging documents and submitting false evidence regarding vehicle titles and registrations. The affidavit detailed, citing the ADFA, that this occurred 27 times.
Alleged Admission
In a post-Miranda interview, Patterson allegedly told officers that Salinas had approached her regarding the Ford Bronco. Even though she knew that the vehicle was not up for repossession, she agreed to it, and later sold it to him, the affidavit said.
Patterson is charged with 30 counts of second-degree forgery, 27 counts of false evidence of title or registration, theft of property, and 89 counts of falsifying a business record. She is being held at the Greene County Detention Center on a $100,000 bond.
Meanwhile, Salinas is charged with theft by receiving. He is being held on a $50,000 bond.