A deal to sell a car painted like the American flag turned scary quickly for the seller last night, leading to a gun being drawn — all over a $20 discrepancy.
The victim, who asked we only refer to him by his first name, Wayne, had arranged to sell his Chevy Cobalt through Facebook Marketplace. The Cobalt's trunk area has been painted blue with white stars while the rest of the body is red and white stripes. Wayne met the potential buyer and another man near a shopping center in the Carondelet neighborhood around 10 p.m. The two men arrived in a dark-grey sedan, not painted like any country's flag in particular.
According to a St. Louis Metropolitan Police incident report, the two suspects handed over the money, but as Wayne counted it, he discovered it was $20 short.
When confronted about this, one of the suspects pulled out a handgun and demanded all the money back.
Wayne complied with the demand.
"You know, I was shaking my head at the guy asking him, 'Are you seriously jacking me over this car?'" Wayne tells the RFT. "And he asked even a better question: 'Are you willing to take a bullet over this car?'"
"He had a point," Wayne says. "I thought bodily injury or my life were not worth this car."
One of the suspects then took off in the red, white and blue Chevrolet while the other followed in the dark-grey sedan.
Courtesy photo
Crime scene technicians at Wayne's recovered car.
Perhaps not surprisingly given the unique look of the car, it didn't take long for police to recover the vehicle. Wayne posted on Facebook today that the car had been returned to him. He thanked the city police as well as the police in Jennings.
"If I've learned anything from this experience, it will be that I will never meet anyone unless it's at a public place," Wayne says. [And I'll] check their profile on Facebook for sure."
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