Tow truck driver unknowingly delivers stolen SUV to thieves in Charlotte

CHARLOTTE — An unsuspecting tow truck driver was caught in the middle of an elaborate SUV theft scheme.

A dealership needed an SUV towed, and the tow truck driver unknowingly dropped it off into the hands of thieves, according to court documents.

The tow truck driver came to take the 2023 Chevy Suburban from a lot in west Charlotte to a dealership in South Carolina that bought it, according to a warrant.

However, when the tow truck driver showed up, the Suburban wasn’t there.

That is because it had already been towed by a tow company that had no idea it was helping thieves out.

“This was a first. It blew my mind,” said Sam Serhal, a tow truck driver.

Serhal said he’s still dumbfounded at how he fell for the scam that innocently and unknowingly helped thieves steal the Suburban.

In January, he signed up to tow the SUV off a lot on Remount Road and drop it off three miles away at a Goodwill parking lot on Wilkinson Boulevard.

“We negotiated a price of $145, he said.

Serhal did the job and was paid through Zelle, but in hindsight, he said some things were suspicious.

“He says, ‘Drop it at the end of the parking lot and hide the keys in the gas tank,’” Serhal told Channel 9. “I said, ‘Dude, this is a 2023 vehicle. You sure you want to do that in Charlotte?’ I told him, ‘I hate to tell you, but the old Charlotte doesn’t exist anymore.”

Court documents said it was all a scheme by crooks who tricked Serhal and Central Dispatch, who posts towing jobs, into taking the car to the lot where thieves picked it up.

“I was like, ‘Holy cow. That guy played us,’” Serhal said.

This is how Serhal believes it happened.

Serhal said a dealership in South Carolina bought the car from Enterprise in Charlotte.

The tow job was posted to Central Dispatch, asking for a company to tow the vehicle to the South Carolina dealership.

Instead, Serhal believes someone hacked into Central Dispatch and acted as a transport company, or a middleman, to swipe the vehicle.

The fraudsters even possibly created fake documents to gain access to the SUV.

The fraudulent transport company told Serhal their tow trucks could not fit in the lot to grab the SUV, so they asked his company for help.

“I was shocked,” Serhal said. “I said, ‘Holy Jesus. What in the world just happened? How could that guy fool us?’”

He added, “If they can do that, I assume they can do anything now.”

Serhal warns other companies that they should keep their guards up.

Meanwhile, investigators tried to find the identity of the person who ran the Zelle account, according to a search warrant.

However, that part of the investigation got nowhere, according to a police report.

The Zelle account was associated with another stolen car in Kentucky.