5 arrested in suspected car swindling scheme throughout Hennepin Co.

Hennepin County car selling scheme

The Hennepin County Sheriff's Office says it has arrested five people, and recovered more than $50,000 in cash ? the alleged profits from a scheme of tampering with vehicles than reselling them far above real value.

HENNEPIN CO. (FOX 9) - The first tip came in from Wisconsin.

A man who’d sold a truck for less than half of what he’d asked was suspicious of the buyers from Minneapolis - who found engine problems and convinced him to drop the price.

"Took it for a test drive, came back and said you have oil inside your radiator," explained Hennepin County Sheriff's Office Detective Kevin Kedrowski.

The seller didn’t know there was a problem, but agreed, though he still wondered.

He checked his doorbell camera video and saw it clear as day.

While two men distracted him, a third checked under the hood. The video showed him pouring oil into the radiator, creating the illusion of a major engine leak.

Suspected scammers

What we know:

The Hennepin County Sheriff's Office tracked the buyers to a rented home in Minneapolis.

And on July 31, they served a search warrant, finding six vehicles with their odometers either tampered with or with the dash gauges replaced entirely.

In one case, the original odometer read 250,000 miles. The new one read 145,000.

When they tracked the vehicles back to the previous owners, all reported a similar story: the buyers discovering oil in the radiators and pressuring for a vastly lower selling price.

They also found more than $50,000 in cash, the suspected profits from scamming sellers, then turning around and scamming buyers.

The suspects, detectives believe, have moved around, only renting the Minneapolis home recently.

"They were probably doing it for at least a few months out of that address," said detective Kedrowski. "And I think they’ve been doing it at different addresses throughout the metro. From what we’ve been able to tell, they’re part of a larger criminal organization, so we’re working on tracking down some other people affiliated with them."

Buy low, sell high

What's next:

Detectives also tracked down people who purchased vehicles from the suspects, believing they got a good deal based on the mileage displayed on the gauge.

"A victim thought they were getting a great steal of a price when really the car had 250,000 miles and should have been worth way, way less than they were paying for it," Kedrowski said.

In one example, Kedrowski said, a vehicle listed for $9,000 was purchased instead for $4,000 because of "engine issues."

Once the odometer was changed, it was then resold for $15,000.

The suspects have yet to be charged because detectives are still gathering evidence, but hope to forward the case to prosecutors soon.

"The extent of what it is, usually it’s one person and they do it here and there but the extent of this organized group doing as many vehicles as they were is brand new to us," Kedrowski said.