ABC 10 Reports, a wannabe thief in Sacramento won’t be joining “Ocean’s Eleven” anytime soon.
On Friday, a shiny, yellow forklift was loaded onto a truck at Sacramento Forklift, driven off and reunited with its rightful owner. The forklift had had quite an eventful 24-hour journey.
One day earlier, Sacramento Forklift sales manager Andrew Bos received a call from a man trying to sell the yellow forklift. The 2012 model would typically sell for about $12,000, but the man only asked for a third of that price.
“It’s not horribly unusual that we might buy something for 25 cents on the dollar, or just 20 cents on the dollar, depending on the situation,” Bos said.”
But Bos had some questions: “Where did you get the forklift. ‘It’s my friend’s forklift.’ Where’s your friend? ‘He’s picking up his son from school.’’’
The answers satisfied Bos, who wrote the man a check for $4,000. The tractor was transported back to Sacramento Forklift; soon after, an employee noticed something strange. There seemed to be some green paint on the otherwise yellow forklift.
“There was a little bit of label just this big,” Bos said, pinching together his fingers. When the employee pulled it off, they saw a bright green.
“We’re like, oh my God. That’s Sunbelt’s!” Bos said.
Bos said they called Sunbelt Rentals to give them the serial number. The forklift rental company confirmed the yellow forklift was theirs.
“It was just like, we can’t believe some of these thieves they steal equipment and try to turn it over and make a profit real quick,” Sunbelt Rental employee Doug Sinclair said.
At the same time this was occurring, Sacramento Forklift received a call from a check-cashing store.
That’s right – the seller of the forklift was sitting and waiting for his cash at the exact same time Sacramento Forklift learned the forklift was stolen. And not only had the seller posed for a photo with the forklift at the time of sale, the man, Brian Ellwell, had used his real name for the exchange.
The cashier at the check-cashing store stalled, while Sacramento Forklift dialed the police. Thirty minutes later, Sacramento Police arrived to arrest the man for possession of a stolen vehicle, possession of stolen property and grand theft.
But for every dumb crook out there, we can only hope there are more good guys, like Bos.
“I’m upset with him that he lied to me, and used me as a pawn … But mostly it’s compassion, which may sound crazy. But I don’t like giving up on people,” Bos said.
