Blotter Chatter

One of my favorite hobbies is to read the police blotter in the local paper in whatever town or city I happen to be passing through. I skim through the “usual” stories about petty theft, drug possession, or disrupting the peace, and look for the stories that stand out. After all, buried within all those tales of ho-hum lawbreakers will be outlandish, real-life stories that make me laugh or get me thinking.

I’ve read stories about kids robbing a convenience store with snow balls; teenagers getting pulled over for mooning a police car; or, a city councilmember charged with assault for hitting another councilmember with a microphone. I couldn’t make some of this stuff up if I tried. 

The real beauty in police blotters is that they are so sparse in details that they give me just enough information to whet my appetite. And, because they’re so local in nature, I can’t help but think that the stories they report could just as easily happen in my town too, which is why a recent police blotter I read caught my attention.

According to the blotter, a car dealership reported that a man using a stolen identity purchased a new car worth over $51,365 with no money down. According to the dealership, the thief supplied the dealership with an out-of-state driver’s license. The dealership learned about the fraud when the true owner of the stolen identity informed the dealership that he had received a call informing him to pick up the license plates for his new vehicle. The blotter reported that the dealer did a “credit screening and online search,” which gave a “positive report” (whatever that means).

This tasty little morsel of news really got me thinking, but left me with far more questions than answers.

I immediately wondered if the dealership had developed an identity theft prevention program and policy that complied with the federal Red Flags Rule. Sure, the Federal Trade Commission doesn’t plan to start enforcing the Rule until June 1 of this year, but the Rule is mandatorily effective now, notwithstanding that the FTC will delay enforcement. And, there are plenty of good reasons having a written identity theft prevention policy in place at the dealership could mean less headache and heartache in the event that identity theft occurs.

I also wondered if there was an assignee finance company involved, and if so, what it did when it learned about the identity theft. Did it turn to its agreement with the dealership to try to make the dealership repurchase the deal or see if any other remedies were available? After all, it’s very possible the dealer agreement required the dealership to make certain representations and warranties regarding the identity of the applicant. It’s also possible the dealer agreement required the dealer to warrant that it complied with federal and state consumer credit laws. This, arguably, could include the dealership’s obligation under the Red Flags Rule to have an identity theft prevention program in place.   

I also wonder what the victim did when he learned that he was a victim of identity theft. Did he try to seek any recourse from the dealership? If so, would the dealership be able to defend itself?

Lastly, and maybe most importantly, it made me think of how real the risk of identity theft at a dealership could be. After all, the dealership in this news report was just like any other new car dealership in Middle America. While I don’t know for certain, my guess is the dealership was carrying on “business as usual” until it received a call informing it about the theft.  

My hope is that if the newspaper was to do a lengthy article on this crime, the article would tell the tale of a dealership that could demonstrate that the identity theft was an anomaly, and not part of a pattern of performance. My hope would be that the dealership could point to its identity theft prevention program, which had been incorporated into the dealership’s training program and had been updated from time to time.

Either way, let’s hope I don’t have to read any more enigmatic blurbs about car dealers in the local police blotters, and I can go back to chuckling over stories about teenage high jinks. After all, what’s next? Car dealer jokes in my funny pages? Let’s hope not!