No Car... Not This Time

We did not get the car that I spoke of in the entry to this blog. In fact, you could say that car does not exist. We drove over to Chicago (Bolingbrook actually) on Saturday to get the car. We pulled up, and it looked pretty nice. It had a few dings in it, but for a car that is 12 years old, the body was in pretty good shape. The owner had told me on the phone the night before that the starter was going out, that he had been unaware of this and he knocked a little off the price. I could agree to that. But when we got there, this guy comes out and tells me it will not turn over at all and that the car had not been driven in 3 years. Say what? The add said, that the car "ran great" and that it had recently had a new valve job, new timing chain and many other new parts. Turns out, that "recently" was three years ago and the car had not been driven since. We tried push starting the car and did get it started.... about 10 times. Everytime I took my foot off the gas or we dropped under 20 miles an hour, it died.
I told the guy, I was not buying this car. He tried to get me to buy it for a lower price. I told him no. Again he lowered the price. Then again.... and again. Then he said, "What will you give me for it?" Truthfully, I would have bought the car for the lower price, but we had already checked and none of the places in town had a car trailor available for rent that day, so I told him I was not interested.

Now comes the hairy part. This guy has $500 of mine that was wired over as a down payment to hold the car. He has yet to return it, and is not returning my phone calls. I gave him to Monday morning to give it back, and so far I have not heard of him. He probably thinks he has successfully ripped me off. But he has a surprise coming to him. I have a friend who is a Illinois State cop. He is already on it, and said when they track him down they will be knocking on his door telling him he can return the money or possibly be facing fraud charges, which at this point look pretty strong. Libby said this guy will be wondering, "Who is this guy that he gets the State Police on this?" Just so happens, I gave the man one of my business cards. I hope he sees the God connection more than he sees the police connection.

I am asking for your prayers on this, because #1, I sure don't want to lose $500. Even if he is arrested does not mean I would get it back. #2, I really am hoping that this guy sees the power of God. I am praying that God just messes him up to where he cannot sleep or have any peace until he does the right thing.