Special Report, Parts 1, 2: Consumer alert in Crook County; Prineville car dealership under fire, accused of scams

(Update: Adding video for Part 2 of Special Report)

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.

Part 2:

In Part 2 of our investigative report on Central Oregon Motors LLC, we spoke with Adam Powell, another suspected victim.

Powell said, "It's rough, especially in this, like, economy." 

Powell said he's known the owner of Central Oregon Motors, Michael Smetzer, for over four years.

"I've known him since he's opened his business. I bought a car from him. I had him sell another truck of mine, and there was no problems with any of that," Powell said.

But when it came to selling his 2013 Ram 1500, Powell said he was not offered a consignment agreement, forcing the agreement to be verbal over Facebook Messenger.

That was in late July, and the vehicle was sold on August 20th for over $15,000.

Powell added, "He was like, 'Give me the 10-day payoff.' So I did, because we have a loan on it, me and my wife."

When you have a loan and you want to either trade it in or sell it, you have a 10-day payoff, which is basically the amount of the loan that you have left plus any interest that accrues over 10 days. 

Powell said, "On day 11, I was like, 'Whoa, what's going on? This is weird. I've never had this happen.' He messaged me, saying, 'Oh, I hate payoffs, they take forever sometimes, can take months' and stuff."

This was problematic for Powell, as he had already canceled the insurance on the vehicle, something his creditor said was required. Because of this, $3,000 was added onto his loan.

We asked Powell, "Are you still continuing to make payments on the truck?" He replied: "Yeah, we have to make them - we have to make, or take a huge hit to our credit."

Powell said he asked Smetzer repeatedly from August through October about the payment, even asking for a proof of sale, which he alleges Smetzer doctored.

Powell said, "He emailed me a purchase order of the truck, and the person's name who bought the truck was on there. And I contacted that person, and he said that he he bought a truck from Central Oregon Motors -- and it wasn't our truck."

On October 10th, Powell filed a report with Prineville Police, who have confirmed to us there is an active investigation into Central Oregon Motors.

Powell said he knows of at least 10 others who have had a similar experience with Smetzer.

"If they bring charges to him and stuff, he's going to be in the courtroom. I'm going to be there, watching him, 'cause I want to see some kind of justice done," Powell said. 

Smetzer is a veteran, having served 10 years of active duty, and received a Purple Heart, according to the Central Oregonian.

Both Adam Powell and Jeff Peck are veterans themselves.

Peck said, "It's a huge slap in the face. I just don't know how one veteran could do that to another." 

Powell said, "His whole motto about his dealership was integrity, which is an Army value. And as far as I'm concerned, he doesn't have the integrity to just keep doing this to people. Basically doing the right thing, which is not what he's doing."

The Prineville Review, which first reported this story, said Smetzer is being sued by loan companies in New York and Illinois for a combined $1.3 million.

Those lawsuits are based on the alleged misappropriation of proceeds of one or more items of collateral and a breach of contract on a loan.

We will continue to follow this case and bring you updates as police release information on their investigation.