Man Arrested Trying To Sell Stolen BMW i8 To State Trooper

Sometimes you come across a deal that’s too good to be true. And that’s usually true. Like if you saw a 2016 BMW i8 with an asking price of $87,000 you’d be right to think there’s something fishy going on. And there was in this case.

WREG Memphis reports that this post caught a lot of people’s attention on Memphis Craigslist. It especially caught the eye of a sergeant with the Tennessee Highway Patrol, who suspected that the car may have been stolen. Naturally, the officer reached out to the seller, Marqueze Blackwell, and arranged a casual meeting to check out the car.

After a simple visual inspection, it was clear that the car’s VIN plate had been tampered with, and the officer arrested Blackwell after a check of the real VIN number found under the seat showed the BMW was in fact stolen. The i8 had been taken from Orlando, Florida months ago.

Unfortunately for thieves today, automakers have started stamping the VIN number in multiple places on the car’s body to prevent that from happening since tampering with a VIN is one of the oldest tricks in the car theft book.