North Carolina family loses $21,000 to cloned vehicle purchase on Facebook Marketplace

Summary

A family in Sampson County, North Carolina, lost $21,000 after purchasing a cloned Chevrolet High Country truck through Facebook Marketplace. The truck, originally stolen in April from Dallas, Texas, was denied registration by the North Carolina DMV due to a suspicious title. Detectives found that the VIN on the truck was registered in Mississippi and that the vehicle had been altered, indicating it was a cloned vehicle. The truck was identified as a cloned or "re-VINed" vehicle, where the VIN from a non-stolen vehicle was swapped onto the stolen one. Authorities in Georgia and Texas are assisting in the investigation to locate the suspect.