Special Report, Part 1: Consumer alert in Crook County; Prineville car dealership under fire

PRINEVILLE, Ore. (KTVZ) -- The owner of a Prineville car dealership is under fire after claims he's scammed several clients selling their vehicles.

“I'm feeling very violated,” said Jeff Peck, who went through Central Oregon Motors in June to sell a Jeep that his late father left him after his passing.

Peck says he still has not received the money for the Jeep five months later

"He said it's sold to a retired couple from Lake Havasu (Arizona), and they were looking for a red Jeep. Just so happened, my dad passed away in Lake Havasu," Peck told us

After a few weeks, Peck says he started to worry about how long it was taking to receive the money.

Over this time, Peck pressed the owner, Mike Smetzer, and was told the issues were with the finance company and it was out of his hands,

"We found out that his texts to us were copies of the same texts he sent to everybody else," Peck said.

Peck said Smetzer told him to reach out to the finance company to receive the check, but that company told him he wasn’t aware of the transaction.

"He told us to contact his bond company, but not to let them know that he told us to contact them," Peck said. "And at that point, I’m like, 'Okay, there’s something fishy going on here.'"

Initially, Peck handed the title over to Smetzer on July 24, after the supposed sale to the Lake Havasu couple.

Through his own investigation, Peck found his vehicle had actually been sold to a dealer in Missouri and the title had been backdated to June 27

"Our original consignment agreement was $33,000 no less for the Jeep," Peck said. "Well, he sold it for $24,000, and we got that much information out of him."

By tracking the Vehicle ID (VIN) number, Peck was able to find what happened to the Jeep after the Missouri dealership.

"They sold it to somebody, a private party who drove it around for a couple thousand miles, and then they traded it in or sold it," Peck said. 

The Jeep is now online, advertised for sale in Illinois

Peck also reported the issue to the Oregon DMV, who conducted their own investigation

"Our Oregon DMV investigator was able to finally get them to cooperate, gave us a copy of the title, and the signatures were forged," he said, "and the police department has all that information

We reached out to the Prineville Police Department and the Crook County district attorney.

The police department confirmed an active investigation, while the DA said the reports on that investigation had not been handed to her yet.

Peck said, 'He kept telling us, 'I would never rip you off, I would never scam you, that’ll never happen.' The more we kept digging, the more we were just amazed at how deep this actually went, and then we started finding more people that he had done this to."

More victims have reached out to us, sharing similar experiences with Central Oregon Motors and Mike Smetzer.

We reached out to Smetzer, but his attorney responded, saying he has no comment.

We’ll talk with another suspected victim in Part 2 of our Special Report Friday night on NewsChannel 21.