Julie

Update: The posse idea may have some life in it yet. Police/insurance were called off before shop was ever alerted and an olive branch may be sprouting. The other two choices are sell the whole lot to a salvager to sort through (for pennies on the dollar) or donate to the technical college auto program and take the write off on the business loss. At least it wouldn't be the end of its life. Stay tuned. Also I am not a total amateur (yes I am but still). I was even going to call Don Bunn but then found out he had died. ?

I don't know what a POA is but you might be surprised. He has said he welcomes a visit and any conversation with anyone who actually knows what they are talking about (and this is clearly not me) because he truly believes you will take his side. Turns out he's not a big fan of women as a rule. Who knew.

Thank you, and agreed. I am excited even thinking about that, but it might take me awhile. I lost my 18-year-old wiener dog Oscar in 2014 and still can't muster the heart to get another. ? As to the miserable SOB, I do believe in karma, though, and karma is a bitch.

Gauges were re-conditioned and upgraded to 12V by a guy call Bob's Speed-o-Meter, I think it cost $2K, paid him directly. Never saw them, though. Yes I do have the title. My bf ran the VIN when we bought it and it came back blank. This did not alarm him at the time, given the age. This good to know, thank you. The insurance adjustor does not plan to contact him yet and actually froze the claim for this reason. It's not a work stoppage yet as I did not respond to his last email awaiting direction on what to do next and welcoming me to send my car club pals (which would be you!) to come have a look. I have not talked to the detectives yet, though, who have to decide who has jurisdiction and whether it's a theft based on a visit I can but don't have to request. But if the police do tell him to return my property and he doesn't the next step is the stop order with a 10 day notice to return it. What I'm saying is he does not know that I am refusing to be further extorted yet and may well be holding out hope for a thank you sir may I have another. He is paying a divorce lawyer a bundle right now to hold onto his shirt and various body parts of his own. ?

Like maybe these guys but I would like to get some opinions before I contact them. I do not want to go from the frying pan into the fire. https://www.zbsalvage.com/

Thank you kindly for that invitation and I will definitely do that. In fact, if I could find another one like mine was before it was trashed for around $10K I would buy it and start again.

These are all good idea and thoughts and I'm really grateful. I don't have the stomach for any of this. I would rather put an ad on "Craigslist" under the "Free" category and give his address for anybody who wants to go get it. I would also consider donating it to Madison Area Technical College. I would also hire a mover to drive it into the lake. I just don't want him left with a single screw. Question: Is there such a thing as a consigner or salvager who would just take the whole lot from you and then give you a percentage? I don't even know how to Google this in the area. I would love to call up the posse once it's determined what if anything is left. I contacted my insurance company who involved police. He will be getting a visit soon and a demand from law enforcement and a lawyer to return my property but there is some question of jurisdiction at the moment and also determining when the incident occurred. BTW I am from CA but live in Florida now and teach remotely, I came to be near my mom and dad during the pandemic. I have not had the heart to tell them any of this. My dad was a lawyer but he's not in the best shape lately and he retired quite awhile back. I don't even know if he is still registered with the bar so I am going to have to pay someone in Wisconsin. The insurance co. told me I have to go through this process to file any claim, and it is likely to be very small if anything for the loss of original parts. But that is a long road, they told me, and probably not worth it. I started this project with an ex who was a cop I'm sure could've helped but he recently passed. And I wanted it to be the centerpiece of a wedding business I always dreamed of starting with my sister and used the last of the money she left me to buy it and fix it up. Maybe it would make a good story for Garage Squad? Shop pic is 10/2018

Thank you Ralph, I appreciate that. I've known for awhile I would be paying more than I wanted to, but never in a million years did I imagine it would be in exchange for nothing. I bought it with a small inheritance from my sister. Wherever she is, I bet she is sad too.

All billing is settled and he has been instructed to discontinue further work on the truck. I talked to the insurance company about making a claim for a total loss, which is a possibility only if it has completely disappeared (which is not out of the realm of the possible, I suppose). I have not had any pics since April, but I have had $8K in billings mostly for "fabrication" I clearly never wanted or needed. The adjustor told me during Covid they are getting all kinds of claims like this, including one for a $200K classic Ferrari some guy sold off part by part while billing the guy for repairs he never did. He did not even get arrested, it was a civil matter and they were able to settle a claim based only on the loss of the original parts. Anyway, I just found out this dude's wife filed for divorce (and child support) about a month ago. It really makes sense how hard up for cash he is because that's just around the time he contacted me and asked why I hadn't paid an invoice e-mailed just hours earlier. I was on vacation at the time and was like, um, I'll get to it next week. I actually thought for a second there had been a fire or something but did not follow my intuition that something was terribly wrong. And again, his response to my telling him whatever happens, he will not be finishing the job was to send me a second bill (for labor only) inside of a 3-week span. Last word from him: If you have someone that complete your truck to the point that is it up and running for 40 hours, have them come get it. They obviously do not know what they are talking about (no disrespect is meant by that), but there is no way possible it can be done, unless they have 10 guys on it non-stop. Just the wiring takes 30+ hours. And we still need to finish the suspension, steering, brake lines, fuel lines, install a fuel tank, install gauges, install A/C unit and build A/C lines, mount the radiator, build transmission cooler lines, etc....... I could go on and on. I have no issues with you having someone stop by to see the project. Whoever can finish it for the 40 hours is your best bet. Please let me know when they are coming to get it so i can get all the parts rounded up and in one spot. You advice does help but I affirmatively do not want to continue with this project. I am just trying to figure out how to execute selling the parts he apparently has scattered around his property. At this point I want anybody but him to have them and it seems like I will have to pay someone something to even make that happen (which is ok) but I actually don't know how to proceed. He will not be doing me a solid, or anything else.

LOL. It's a great stopping point! I stopped there in Fall 2019 when I moved to L.A. from WI with a stuffed rabbit riding shotgun. My friend lives in Denver and has a young kid who got a ton of presents that were overcrowding my little car. Would have been nice to own a frikkin truck!!

Wait, there are two Cottage Groves? What are the odds?! Road trip!!!

You have done exponentially more work in this email to pull this project together than this dude has done in 3 1/2 years. So thank you for that. He has pretty much washed his hands of this, although when I pressed him for any ballpark figure just to get it up and running again (no interior or body) so I could take it somewhere else he came up with about 28K for labor alone. I have no idea why the interior was ripped up BTW. I just assumed to make things easier for him to work on. I never even okayed painting the interior, said I wanted a quote from the body shop first. He's also become incredibly condescending and sarcastic in these days since I told him I did not wish to continue to pay him so yes, we are done. So much so that it's hard for me to tell asking even the most basic question to try to coordinate transfer out of there. I can't tell if he is giving me an actual answer or just insulting me and my "car club pals," which would be you. Even when I produced multiple text messages over the years in our discussion around budget limiting him to $20K or so (plus another $4 he wants for the A/C) (to which he'd say things like, "sounds good" and/or "we'll sure try"), he now denies ever having said those things. So like I say, maybe somebody got a hold of his phone and I was actually talking to somebody else. Could happen. At the end of the day, maybe people just hear what they want to hear and somewhere along the way he decided this was what he was doing and I was just somebody in the background he could bill from time to time when he felt like doing it. I never knew that was a Chevy engine by the way and I would have never okayed that. One thing I repeated over and over, I do not want a Frankentruck. But again, he clearly tuned me out presumably as just some girl with a checkbook long ago. To whit, check out a Facebook post he himself made in September 2018. Paint and interior -- a cosmetic upgrade -- were my priorities from the get-go and he seems to be parroting that back, then tossing in his big idea to stick in a whole new engine as an afterthought. And then he just kept running with it. That's my interpretation anyway. The biggest red flag has been that he has declined to have any request from me to discuss budget and schedule since I moved away in Aug. 19 , usually he's just busy or he forgot or we'll talk soon. He would send another bill at some point, but he never returned a single call. Not once. He has sent the second of two separate bills inside of the last three weeks, totaling $4056 for labor, mostly. Fabrication, he said. Really good word for it. Given the state of the truck, you are likely $20k away from a good daily driver truck. a) You could sell this one for probably $7k in its current state (parts alone), and let someone else finish it. You could buy something (or nothing) else. b) You could Finish it yourself in your spare time c) Have this guy bring it to some state like running d) have another shop do the work that you trust and can supervise. I am not sure I will ever trust anyone again. A seems the best option, although I don't really know how to orchestrate this. He told me in our last exchange to let him know who wanted to pick up the parts so he can run around the shop and get them together (paraphrasing). $7k is ironically the price I bought the truck for. The saddest thing is it ran and drove just fine at the time. The two things I ever asked for were safety and pretty. He told me recently I also said I wanted to drive at high speed so I could go to "Wisconsin Dells." I would not go to Wisconsin Dells if I were under fire, so he must be thinking about someone else. You could buy something (or nothing) else. Yes. I will buy a Dodge. Thanks, posse.

Yes, you are my hero! I was going to say I don't think you are all that far, isn't Oak Grove MN near Eau Claire WI? Hop, skip and a jump.

Love!! Whatever happened to the idea of a good old-fashioned posse?

Thank you. At the time I did not know enough to make the distinction. My level of interest in going to court is next to none.

This is incredibly generous of you. Love Mt. Horeb and especially your trolls (which I guess means something else entirely on the internet! LOL. If it means anything at all to you guys, he is inviting my "car club pals" to weigh in any time.