Imagine you’re a Ferrari salesperson, working on commission at a dealership in Ohio. One day, you spot a buyer who has it all: polished looks, easy charm, and the confidence of someone who’s got money to burn. When the con man asks for the keys to a black Ferrari 430 Spyder, you’re already calculating your commission.

He talks the talk—negotiating like a pro, cracking jokes, and name-dropping his affluent lifestyle. “He lived locally, had a local license, and even purported himself to be an attorney,” Doug, who owns a competing luxury car dealership, explains. Everything checks out.

He doesn’t just kick the tires. This guy buys the car. He writes a personal check—a rare move, but not unheard of when the buyer looks rock solid. You hand him the keys, already picturing your weekend plans.

But that night, it all goes sideways.

The con man crashes his new Ferrari on the first night

High and drunk, the man blows through an intersection. He T-bones another car. The supercar? Toast. “The car, in true Ferrari form, went up in flames,” Doug recalls.

Meanwhile, the poor salesman is at work when the bank calls. “There’s something funny going on with this check,” they say.

Naturally, the Ferrari dealership calls the con man all weekend. The buyer calls back Monday, full of apologies. “I’m sorry, there was some error,” he says, promising to wire the money. Then comes the kicker: “Oh, by the way, I’d like to buy the Ferrari California you have as well—for my brother.”

The Ferrari dealership hatches a daring plan to catch the con man

The “lawyer” wants this second delivered to the Justice Center downtown, where he supposedly works. At this point, the dealership decides to calls the police. As safe as it seems to deliver a car to the Justice Center, they’ve had enough. And sure enough, this con artist is wanted for pulling the same thing at the Mercedes dealership to get a black SL. This guy just has a thing for stealing black supercars.

The Ferrari sales team proposes a sting to catch the con man: Drive the California to the Justice Center. Wait for him to show up. The police will handle the rest.

When the buyer climbs into his second Ferrari, it’s game over. “They parked outside the Justice Center with a Ferrari,” Doug recounts, “and as soon as he got in the car, the cops swarmed and arrested him.”

Turns out, this wasn’t his first rodeo. Doug says his friend the police officer later called him to warn him about the con artist: “We put him away last time for buying black exotic cars with fake checks.” Too little, too late.

For dealerships, this tale is a lesson in caution. Even the most polished buyers can be scam artists. It took a daring sting to catch this guy. For the rest of us, it’s a jaw-dropping story of audacity. You can hear Doug describe several of the greatest car scams of all time in the video embedded below: