Something smells fishy

and it isn't the Ready-To-Eat Meals in the trailer!

KSTP.com - Stolen Twin Cities boy scout trailer bought online (video page)

Why would you hand over $1600 without getting paperwork? At the very least a reciept showing payment incase anything came up....some type of bill-of-sale so that they couldn't report the trailer as stolen later on and end up getting it back plus your money....anything in writing at all.

But no--this guy finds it listed on craigslist.com (red flag one), meets them at a gas station (red flag 2), realizes that the trailer is worth over twice as much as they are asking (red flag 3), won't let him see their driver's liscense (red flag 4), doesn't have any ownership papers on them (red flag 5), and no registration papers to change the plates (red flag 6)....oh did I mention it was a cash only deal? (red flags 7-1607)

I just have a hard time that with all these red flags that he wouldn't think something was up and call police. How hard would it be to say to the guys "you know I don't know....let me call my friend to come take a look at it....he's only about 10 minutes away" and then go off to either a pay phone or use your cell to call the cops to come by and look at it?

No this guy, supposibly, handed over the money without a second thought. Too bad for him when he went to change the liscense plates--they ran the plates and found it was the stolen trailer.

Now I don't know this guy, so I can't say he is shady....but the whole story just doesn't ring true somehow. At least not to me.