Car Execs Arrested for Stealing 81 Vehicles

March 12, 2009 — -- Three executives at a Ford/Toyota dealership who allegedly hatched an elaborate scheme to abscond with 81 cars worth $2.5 million have been apprehended, according to authorities.

The trio, Allen Patch, the owner of Legacy Auto Sales in Scotts Bluff, Neb., Rachel Fait, the comptroller of the dealership and Rick Covello, the dealership's general manager, were all apprehended Thursday morning. Two of the suspects were arrested in Utah and a third in Scotts Bluff, police said.

Patch, Fait and Covello each face charges of felony theft after allegedly shipping 81 Fords and Toyotas Monday to various states across the country in hopes of reselling them for profit at auto auctions, according to John Childress, the Scotts Bluff County's chief deputy county attorney.

The intricate plot was executed late on the night of March 10, when nine trucks from a Utah-based shipping company arrived to cart off the 81 cars, according to court documents.

Robert Rausch, the owner of Rausch Transport, alleges that Fait had told him that the cars were involved in a "dealership bankruptcy" and that she "needed to move them to auto auctions."

The drivers of the trucks were awarded with cashier's checks right before they drove away, according to Childress. It has since been determined that those checks were fraudulent.

Rausch was unable to be reached by ABCNews.com.

"They were trying to liquidate a bunch of cars very quickly," said Childress. "Shipping off that many at the same time to different places certainly makes it look like they were trying to make some fast cash."

The missing cars had turned up nationwide, said Childress, from the local airport parking lot to Las Vegas to Utah and possibly in Arizona.

Miranda Cervantes, the dealership's title manager, said she returned to work Tuesday after a day off and found the lot was virtually empty, according to a report in the Scottsbluff Star-Herald. She said the desks of Patch, Fait and Covello had been cleaned out, according to the paper.

"How did they ever think they'd get away with this?" asked Childress. "The volume of cars basically disappearing overnight along with these three executives was very telling that something fishy was going on."

Scottsbluff Police Chief Kevin Spencer said that not all of the 81 cars have been accounted for. Spencer said that at least 16 of them were sold at an auction in Utah, seven others went to a dealership in the same area and an undetermined number turned up in other states.

Spencer was not sure whether those individuals who purchased the cars through the auction would still be able to keep the vehicles.

Echoing Childress' surprise at the magnitude of the alleged scheme, Spencer said that the situation is "pretty extraordinary."

"We've never seen this -- not 81 cars," he said. "It's very unusual."

The three executives had been working at the dealership for a little more than a year, according to Childress. "They were in financial trouble," said Childress, who is unsure of whether the money involved was going toward the dealership. "Not bankruptcy yet, but the local finance banks were watching them pretty closely.