DeKalb senior citizen says dealership refused to help her after learning they sold her a stolen car

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — A DeKalb County senior citizen has spent months trying to get the title to the car she purchased from a Lilburn used car lot, only to find out state records list it as a stolen vehicle.

“They said it’s stolen,” Jane Baesman told Channel 2 consumer investigator Justin Gray.

Baesman bought the car from Rivera’s Automotive last May. She paid $6,300 in cash.

“The dealer sent me the tag in the mail, but I still didn’t have a title. So that’s when I went into the DMV,” she said.

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And that’s where she was told the car was stolen and she would not be able to get a title or renew the tag.

For months now, she’s been calling police departments, calling the dealer and calling the tag office to try to sort this out.

“Round and round and round. Everybody says, ‘Do this.’ and that person says, ‘Well, do that,’” Baesman said.

Gray tracked down the original incident report from when the car was reported stolen from a US Auto Sales lot in Clayton County in 2021. The dealership is now closed down.

State officials tell us it was US Auto Sales who sold the car at auction, where Rivera’s bought it.

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That means the stolen car was likely recovered, but for some reason, state records were never updated.

The manager of Rivera’s told Gray he bought the car at auction and saw no record of it being stolen. When Gray asked him about what he was doing to help Baesman, he hung up the phone on him.

Baesman said she and her son have relatedly called Rivera’s.

“He’s not been answering for months,” Baesman said.

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Gray went to Rivera’s in person to press for answers.

“It’s rough for her. She’s an elderly lady who gave you thousands of dollars,” Gray told a salesperson.

Shortly after Gray was at Rivera’s, a state investigator showed up and issued the dealership a citation that Channel 2 Action News was told is unrelated to the specifics of Baesman’s case.

State officials say it is Clayton County police who have to change the status of the car in the state database.

The Georgia Department of Revenue has reached out to Clayton County police and provided them with the paperwork to do that.

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