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February 01, 2008
"Car"-ma For Giambi?
Via the CBS Stations Group of Texas:
Celebrities, star athletes and wealthy business people all paid a North Texas company big money for a one-of-a-kind collectible. But police say they got scammed.
In a story you will only see on cbs11tv.com, we reveal the high profile victims and the amazing twist that has the Texas Governor and federal investigators paying very close attention.
A company called Unique Performance in Farmers Branch built vintage muscle cars. But now that company is in bankruptcy, leaving high profile clients out more than $39-million.
Unique Performance's unique way of building those fancy Mustangs has been a secret until now.
The nearly 200 victims of Unique Performance came from all over the globe. Professional athletes like Jason Giambi of the New York Yankees, the managing partner of the Boston Celtics and a royal family member from Bahrain are all victims. There's even a former Secret Service agent.
In November, detectives confiscated 61 cars from Unique Performance after finding the vehicle identification numbers on all of the cars had been removed or scraped off.
Here's where the story takes a huge turn.
The investigation led detectives to the Texas Prison System.
Unique Performance used inmates to build the cars. At least 17 felons convicted of crimes such as aggravated assault, aggravated robbery and murder worked on the cars.
Investigators say the inmates illegally removed the VINs from the Unique Performance cars.
"We're looking at who gave the orders to remove those VIN numbers," said Harris.
But detectives day that's not all. The inmates who did the body work altered something else -- the body of the cars.
"I think the customer out here, one thing that they don't realize, a large majority of these cars, each car had 13 gallons of Bondo," said Harris.
Bondo is the brand name for an adhesive putty commonly used to repair auto bodies before they're painted.
"You would never Bondo a car of this value, so that would be deceitful. That would be fraud," said Bartee.
I wonder if Jason was upset that the "muscle" car which he thought he was buying turned out to be nothing but a "bondo" built up fraud?
Better driving through chemistry, Giambino? How does it feel?
Posted by Steve Lombardi at February 1, 2008 12:37 AM
Comments
That story is so full of punchline.....
Posted by: Yu Hsing Chen ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.waswatching.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at February 1, 2008 02:33 AM
There's a joke about Barry in here somewhere too.
Posted by: Pete at February 1, 2008 11:14 AM