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WGAU
Gwinnett County man helps police catch seller he says sold him stolen van
By WSBTV,
13 days ago
GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — A Gwinnett County man helped set up the sting that led to the arrest of a man who allegedly sold him an altered and stolen van, according to police.
Fredy Juarez thought he scored a good deal on a 2016 Ford Transit van last month when he bought one from a seller on Facebook for $10,000.
“[I’m] just an entrepreneur trying to make a living,” he said.
The father of six had recently sold a vehicle on Facebook himself.
When he met the seller of the van, he paid for it after a brief inspection of the VIN and the title that came with the vehicle.
It wasn’t until he took the vehicle to a Gwinnett County tag office that he realized the van was not what it seemed.
“They said the car was nowhere to be found in the system,” Juarez said.
He got police involved and learned the VIN that came with the van was fake and the vehicle’s true VIN confirmed it was stolen out of Ohio. Police seized the van because it had been reported stolen.
With Juarez out $10,000, he couldn’t make contact with the original seller because he said the seller had blocked him on social media.
However, he saw a similar van for sale a few days later and realized the seller was the same person.
“I came across the same profile that sold me the VIN that didn’t exist,” he said.
He followed up with police and said he wanted to help them catch him so he set up a sale for the additional vehicle with a friend’s account. The seller agreed to meet him at a gas station on Winder Highway in Gwinnett County on April 8.
“I was texting the guy from my friends profile to tell him, ‘Hey, I am here,” he said. “When he got there, the police were waiting for him.”
Police arrested 24-year-old Emir Mehic and charged him with theft by deception.
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