Good evening,
I am posting this here because I'm not sure where else to post it. Staff if there is a more appropriate board feel free to move it. Thank you.
I buy and sell equipment in the North Texas area and have been doing so for years without issues. I often use commercial haulers through a broker that I have done 40+ successful loads with and have been happy with them. Tuesday 12/23/25 at approximately 8:30 AM a machine that I had sold was picked up at my place by a driver that my broker booked (Insurance checked out as active and clean background check on ID he used).
Both the broker and customer were in contact with him to coordinate delivery same day in the panhandle. About 6-8 hour drive max. The driver starts making all kinds of excuses to the customer and broker as to why he is delayed, which by itself is not immediately concerning as that is very common in this industry, however, he begins to lay the framework to act like there is a payment dispute between him and the broker and makes more excuses and sets new ETA's and blows through them. He even told the customer he was broken down in a town 45 minutes away and the already nervous customer got his truck and trailer and went to look for him in this tiny town which he of course wasn't in. The driver and the broker continue to talk and make agreements about payment (industry standard and contract specify payment upon successful delivery) and he continued to set ETA's for delivery and missing them over the next few days. All the while, the broker has asked him to verify his location with a GPS pin or link and send photos of the unit and he will not do so. At first my speculation was that this guy was very unprofessional and just decided to take the load home with him to Brownsville area while lying to us so he could enjoy the holidays and have a load set up to deliver right after Christmas (slow time in the industry).
Christmas came and went with new promises to the broker who conveyed to me they thought it would actually be delivered now. More lies and missed ETA's.
At this point the broker agent and owner of the transportation brokerage company are trying to pay this guy ahead of time, and more than the contracted amount to bring this to an end, however the driver won't give them a viable way to instantly pay him and keeps saying they are scamming him while not being willing to disclose the location of the machine. At this point we are all strongly suspecting straight theft and machine is long gone, however, I can't understand why he would still be in touch with us all and even contacting the deputy throughout the day later on (he did not answer as he is night shift).
Fast forward a day or two and the driver reaches out to me via text saying that he doesn't know what my broker is telling me but he now wants to deal exclusively with me. I do not reply and will not engage him directly as I am not the one contracted with him and don't want to jeopardize insurance. He then calls me twice in a row which I ignore. I then call my sheriffs department to make a police report and file on his insurance. While the deputy is with me, the deputy gives the guy a call and talks to him for about an hour with me sitting right there. The guy continues the narrative that this is a payment dispute and keeps saying that it's a civil dispute, trying to lay the groundwork for a civil not criminal case (he obviously has done this many times). The guy continues to lie about who he is where he has been (says he was in the panhandle for 5 days and missed Christmas arguing with the broker, but we know his plate on his truck was seen near the border on the 24th without a trailer or the machine) and will not disclose the location of the machine or send pictures to verify its condition, even when asked directly by the deputy. When I was taking photos of the machine on his trailer before it departed my place he was accidentally in one of the photos and I did manage to get a photo of his license plate. I shared those with the deputy and it was determine that this guy was a completely different guy and truck than the one who contracted with the broker. Obviously he used someone else's info to book the load.
He tells the officer his name is the name on the ID copy that we have, but we are able to pull up his photo using the license plate and it matches the photo that I took of him.
The deputy assures him he wants to make sure that he gets paid and asked for him to verify the location of the machine and send photos which he refuses to do saying that it is at a storage unit in the valley, the name he gives us does not exist. He says he will send the pinpoint location once he gets paid. The next morning he texts me that he went to a police department and they told him to leave it at the storage unit and put a lien on it there so that I will have to pay the storage unit fees when I pay for the machine and then he calls me multiple times in a row. I pass that along to the deputy.
Fast-forward to today, I am sitting on my couch and recollect that the morning he was loading up the machine. He made a comment that he had taken a service truck to a guy who buys and sells them in Longview, Texas. Remembering that conversation, I started googling companies that buy and sell used service trucks in Longview and make a couple calls with no dice. I try one other place and lo and behold, I am talking to the guy who had just gotten ripped off right before me.
This guy tells me his story which is identical to mine, however the driver went by his actual name instead of the fake name he's used with us. The driver picked up a service truck for him in San Antonio and would not give it to him for over a month after he finally agreed to pay him $5200 in cash once he delivered in Longview. The driver says all the same stuff and uses the same antics claiming payment dispute with broker and it's a civil dispute. The guy in Longview sent me a video that he took of him paying him the ransom money at the end (he took a video so he could show he did pay him), and I shared the picture I had of him and it was the same guy. The Longview guy shared with me the info on the police chief in this guys hometown in the Valley area who knows all about him. He also shares the public records of this guy who has 18 priors. He is currently on probation. The guy from Longview tried everything he could to get his truck back, even having the police chief go by the known yard (in the drivers hometown) where the driver was keeping the truck hostage (behind gate) just to let him know it was still there.
Ultimately, he could not get the police to take possession of his truck because the DA in that county said that it was a civil dispute, not criminal. He is advising me to just save the trouble and pay the guy the ransom money.
This afternoon I called that police chief and brought him up to speed. He said that there are 6 different cases from all over Texas of this guy doing this. Basically, he just takes people's equipment or items that he is hauling and takes them back to his yard that is fenced in and holds them hostage and claims a civil dispute over payment knowing that the DA won't grant a warrant for the police to take possession or enter the property. The police chief of 50 years told me he disagrees vehemently and that it is clearly theft/conversion and extortion but says there's nothing he can do. He also said it was disgusting.
My question is, is there anyone here with a similar experience or does anyone have advice on how to approach this situation?
The deputy that has been helping me here in my county seems to think that he has enough for a criminal case against the guy based on his two long conversations with him in which he continues to lie and deceive. I'm wondering if maybe my county's DA can help or perhaps the state troopers since this equipment moved across the state?
Moving forward I will at the very least be sending an Apple air tag with every machine I ship.
I am posting this here because I'm not sure where else to post it. Staff if there is a more appropriate board feel free to move it. Thank you.
I buy and sell equipment in the North Texas area and have been doing so for years without issues. I often use commercial haulers through a broker that I have done 40+ successful loads with and have been happy with them. Tuesday 12/23/25 at approximately 8:30 AM a machine that I had sold was picked up at my place by a driver that my broker booked (Insurance checked out as active and clean background check on ID he used).
Both the broker and customer were in contact with him to coordinate delivery same day in the panhandle. About 6-8 hour drive max. The driver starts making all kinds of excuses to the customer and broker as to why he is delayed, which by itself is not immediately concerning as that is very common in this industry, however, he begins to lay the framework to act like there is a payment dispute between him and the broker and makes more excuses and sets new ETA's and blows through them. He even told the customer he was broken down in a town 45 minutes away and the already nervous customer got his truck and trailer and went to look for him in this tiny town which he of course wasn't in. The driver and the broker continue to talk and make agreements about payment (industry standard and contract specify payment upon successful delivery) and he continued to set ETA's for delivery and missing them over the next few days. All the while, the broker has asked him to verify his location with a GPS pin or link and send photos of the unit and he will not do so. At first my speculation was that this guy was very unprofessional and just decided to take the load home with him to Brownsville area while lying to us so he could enjoy the holidays and have a load set up to deliver right after Christmas (slow time in the industry).
Christmas came and went with new promises to the broker who conveyed to me they thought it would actually be delivered now. More lies and missed ETA's.
At this point the broker agent and owner of the transportation brokerage company are trying to pay this guy ahead of time, and more than the contracted amount to bring this to an end, however the driver won't give them a viable way to instantly pay him and keeps saying they are scamming him while not being willing to disclose the location of the machine. At this point we are all strongly suspecting straight theft and machine is long gone, however, I can't understand why he would still be in touch with us all and even contacting the deputy throughout the day later on (he did not answer as he is night shift).
Fast forward a day or two and the driver reaches out to me via text saying that he doesn't know what my broker is telling me but he now wants to deal exclusively with me. I do not reply and will not engage him directly as I am not the one contracted with him and don't want to jeopardize insurance. He then calls me twice in a row which I ignore. I then call my sheriffs department to make a police report and file on his insurance. While the deputy is with me, the deputy gives the guy a call and talks to him for about an hour with me sitting right there. The guy continues the narrative that this is a payment dispute and keeps saying that it's a civil dispute, trying to lay the groundwork for a civil not criminal case (he obviously has done this many times). The guy continues to lie about who he is where he has been (says he was in the panhandle for 5 days and missed Christmas arguing with the broker, but we know his plate on his truck was seen near the border on the 24th without a trailer or the machine) and will not disclose the location of the machine or send pictures to verify its condition, even when asked directly by the deputy. When I was taking photos of the machine on his trailer before it departed my place he was accidentally in one of the photos and I did manage to get a photo of his license plate. I shared those with the deputy and it was determine that this guy was a completely different guy and truck than the one who contracted with the broker. Obviously he used someone else's info to book the load.
He tells the officer his name is the name on the ID copy that we have, but we are able to pull up his photo using the license plate and it matches the photo that I took of him.
The deputy assures him he wants to make sure that he gets paid and asked for him to verify the location of the machine and send photos which he refuses to do saying that it is at a storage unit in the valley, the name he gives us does not exist. He says he will send the pinpoint location once he gets paid. The next morning he texts me that he went to a police department and they told him to leave it at the storage unit and put a lien on it there so that I will have to pay the storage unit fees when I pay for the machine and then he calls me multiple times in a row. I pass that along to the deputy.
Fast-forward to today, I am sitting on my couch and recollect that the morning he was loading up the machine. He made a comment that he had taken a service truck to a guy who buys and sells them in Longview, Texas. Remembering that conversation, I started googling companies that buy and sell used service trucks in Longview and make a couple calls with no dice. I try one other place and lo and behold, I am talking to the guy who had just gotten ripped off right before me.
This guy tells me his story which is identical to mine, however the driver went by his actual name instead of the fake name he's used with us. The driver picked up a service truck for him in San Antonio and would not give it to him for over a month after he finally agreed to pay him $5200 in cash once he delivered in Longview. The driver says all the same stuff and uses the same antics claiming payment dispute with broker and it's a civil dispute. The guy in Longview sent me a video that he took of him paying him the ransom money at the end (he took a video so he could show he did pay him), and I shared the picture I had of him and it was the same guy. The Longview guy shared with me the info on the police chief in this guys hometown in the Valley area who knows all about him. He also shares the public records of this guy who has 18 priors. He is currently on probation. The guy from Longview tried everything he could to get his truck back, even having the police chief go by the known yard (in the drivers hometown) where the driver was keeping the truck hostage (behind gate) just to let him know it was still there.
Ultimately, he could not get the police to take possession of his truck because the DA in that county said that it was a civil dispute, not criminal. He is advising me to just save the trouble and pay the guy the ransom money.
This afternoon I called that police chief and brought him up to speed. He said that there are 6 different cases from all over Texas of this guy doing this. Basically, he just takes people's equipment or items that he is hauling and takes them back to his yard that is fenced in and holds them hostage and claims a civil dispute over payment knowing that the DA won't grant a warrant for the police to take possession or enter the property. The police chief of 50 years told me he disagrees vehemently and that it is clearly theft/conversion and extortion but says there's nothing he can do. He also said it was disgusting.
My question is, is there anyone here with a similar experience or does anyone have advice on how to approach this situation?
The deputy that has been helping me here in my county seems to think that he has enough for a criminal case against the guy based on his two long conversations with him in which he continues to lie and deceive. I'm wondering if maybe my county's DA can help or perhaps the state troopers since this equipment moved across the state?
Moving forward I will at the very least be sending an Apple air tag with every machine I ship.
