Man wrote faulty checks for cars in Bluffton before vanishing with them, report says

Two Bluffton car dealerships fell victim to a man who allegedly wrote bad checks and drove off with three vehicles, according to a Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office report.

The alleged thefts were reported Tuesday, but happened Nov. 14 at Hilton Head Honda.

An employee of the dealership told a deputy that the man had visited the location on that day and purchased a 2018 Honda Pilot.

He allegedly wrote a check for $43,000 and left with the vehicle, the report said.

A few days later, the dealership discovered the check hadn’t gone through and that the account the man had written it from was closed months ago.

When they reached out to the man, the dealership told him to pay the money that was owed or return the vehicle by the end of the day.

As the deputy spoke with the employee, he learned that the same suspect had purchased two new cars from the Mercedes-Benz dealership next door with bad checks.

One of those cars was located in Savannah because it had a GPS tracking system.

By the end of the day the report was made, the suspect had not returned any of the vehicles, the report said. No arrest was listed in the report.

This story was originally published November 24, 2018 at 3:27 PM.