Apparently this 22 year old celica owner took his car to a shop in Ocala Florida to have a paint job done. While it was there he paid for some of the materials but none of the labor. During the time it was there, he kept bringing in more parts to add on to his rice mobile and against the better judgement of the shop owners, they continued to work on it. It took them a total of 4 1/2 months and now $16K later, the kid tried to steal his car back from them because he had no money to pay for it.
This story has gone world wide and has been featured on radio shows yesterdays. The kid is now guaranteeing he will have his car back by tomorrow without paying.
If anyone here knows of Charlie Wenzel (the former poster child of internet scammers), this guy, Joe Dono, has officially taken the title from him. The shop is now in danger of going out of business and the guys over on Tampa Racing forum (where it all started) have started donating to the shop for legal fees to help them out.
The thread is now up to 112 pages and some 1600 posts. If you have some time to kill and want to read some funny stuff, check it out.
The following is a posting on joe dono.info. If you want to see the thread, click on one of the links at the bottom of the home page. It is amazingly funny and sad at the same time. This kid has ruined his name for the rest of his life over $16K. The worst part is, he just got out of jail for scamming people in the past.
Here at TampaRacing.com forums, something pretty interesting/epic has happened that has actually already been aired on at least one syndicated morning show. Local shop owners, Aaron and Brandon, have been scammed $16,000 worth of parts, material and labor during its stay at their shop (called JapWorks). The project took about 4 1/2 months, and the vehicle was a 2004 Toyota Celica that was expected to bring the fledgling business some needed income. Unfortunately, the person thought to be the owner of the vehicle had no intention of paying the $16,000 worth of car work. Mr Joe Dono (20 years old) had provided some parts over the course of the makeover of the vehicle, giving the impression to the shop owners that there was a possibility of payment (against their better judgement). He had also assured the shop over and over again about how his grandfather was picking up the bill in full, and that it was a present for him for college. Since there was money fronted for some of the paint job, the shop owners continued forging ahead. Mr Dono claimed that the grandfather was very adament about being "old school" and wanted the work done before paying a dime. Mr Dono was reminded repeatedly that because of the situation, the owners would have to take further risk, and invest in the project from their own bank account. Mr Dono had even posted in the forum where this incident was brought to light, about how he was waiting on the vehicle to be finished. When it was finally finished two days ago, Mr Dono had informed the shop owners that he had not signed any contract indicating that he needed to pay that amount. What happened next has spun this thread into the epic proportions that it is delivering. When he had sent his mother to retrieve the vehicle, she was under the impression that he had paid for materials and that he had "sponsors" that were paying them to do the labor. She wanted to know why the car was taking so long because Joe had told her it was just simply getting painted. When the mother was unable to retrieve the Celica, he had sent his girlfriend over, and attempted to give a $60 down payment for the work, as well as pay off the $16,000 worth of work in installments. After that did not work, Mr Dono requested the shop owners to just leave the car outside overnight, making sure it was washed and etc. The shop owners were/are not having any of that. As of right now, the vehicle has been towed to an alternate location to protect any theft or destruction of the countless hours that were put into fixing the vehicle up. Mr Dono still frequented the forum less than 30 minutes ago, promising that he is going to get his vehicle, (without having to pay) by the end of the week. "Mark his wurdz" After further discussions with Mr Dono in here, it was learned that the vehicle was financed by his mother, and not actually owned by the man that does not want to pay. Things seem to still be escalating. Yesterday, Mr Dono had come in to the shop with police officers to retrieve the vehicle without paying for it. After the owners had the Florida State Attorney speak with the officer, the officer then informed Mr Dono that he shop owners were allowed to hold onto the vehicle since the work put into it had not been paid. Mr Dono came back several times threatening the owners that they are going to get arrested for keeping his vehicle, all with the same result - no Celica. As of right now, the shop owner is waiting on his mechanic's lien to come through, but, with the vehicle still being financed, there is a likelihood that the job will be paid for by the financing company. Until the financing company pursue's this issue, the owners of the shop are currently at a risk of having their shop closed, due to the investment that was expected to come through. This is still an ongoing issue. The publicity that this seems to have spread worldwide, bringing together a large online community that was quite unexpected. This incident is becoming an internet phenomenon, only because this is not the first time Mr Dono has tried to scam someone. When word of this attempt to scam JapWorks got out, several people from the community recognized Mr. Dono as the perpetrator of prior scams -- for example, taking payment on auctioned items without ever sending them and editing pictures, stealing the copyright that is legitimately their own among other things. It became obvious very soon that this is not the first time Mr Dono has scammed people. Apparently, he is a known scammer on many different forums for several other things he has stolen from those members. Right now, there is a paypal open to donate, allowing the shop owners to re-coup their loss. All the information will be provided in the next few posts. Mr Dono continues to post, informing us that "mark his words" he'll get his Celica by friday. We'll see what happens.
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Richard
Resident manual transmission/driveline guru
Tech Sales Support American Powertrain A Tremec Elite Distributor
TKO, T45, 3650, T5 & T56 Transmission Systems 2199 Summerfield Rd
Cookeville, TN 38506 (931) 646-4836
Man, he makes Charlie Wenzell seem like a winner.... that's SAD.
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so apparently he steals peoples pictures from Flickr, receives payment from people in auction but doesn't send the item and A LOT of other things. It's sad this kid is doing this and ruining the rep of JapWorks (the shop working on the celica) The celica actually doesn't look half bad either. The shop did a good job with it. Sad this kid is such a low life though and steals everything.
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"Passions make men live, knowledge merely makes them last" -Chamfort
so apparently he steals peoples pictures from Flickr, receives payment from people in auction but doesn't send the item and A LOT of other things. It's sad this kid is doing this and ruining the rep of JapWorks (the shop working on the celica) The celica actually doesn't look half bad either. The shop did a good job with it. Sad this kid is such a low life though and steals everything.
You got it.... Very sad and stupid at the same time. The worst part is, his mother is the one making the payments on the car and she is 2 months behind and in danger of a repo. The shop was smart enough to take out a mechanics lein. The mechanics lein takes precedent over any other note against the car including the finance company. At least it would seem that the shop will get their money eventually one way or another. Hopefully they can last it out without going out of business.
Richard
__________________
Richard
Resident manual transmission/driveline guru
Tech Sales Support American Powertrain A Tremec Elite Distributor
TKO, T45, 3650, T5 & T56 Transmission Systems 2199 Summerfield Rd
Cookeville, TN 38506 (931) 646-4836
This is crap. All that hard work, to be screwed out of. It's sad how hard it is to make a honest living now days. I'm happy that people are coming together to help this shop out. I hope they work threw this.
EDIT: I just saw the pictures of the car, that's a damn good job they did. I like the interior.
they should keep the car as their shops sponsor car haha and screw the kid. he's messed up his life, his moms life, and he even tried to get his girlfriend to pay too! that's just wrong. I hope the shop pulls through.
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Satin Silver 2002 GT
SMR #950
"Passions make men live, knowledge merely makes them last" -Chamfort
thats a crazy story hope he gets his in the end, but the shop owners are to blame also allowed the scam to get were it is now, good luck to the shop valuble lessons can be learned from this, only trust family and with them always be sceptacle
I'm not sure why, but I just got done reading most of the posts there...
Unfortunately, the guy is a scammer, no doubt about it. I actually thought it was right and honest of one of the owners of the shop to say he made a mistake by not having payments made all along.
If we get a large printing job in (like a $15,000 job), most assuredly at least 1/2 is paid for up front unless you are an established client.
It's a sad situation... I feel for those guys... they've learned the hard way.
As for the scammer - I hope he gets the book thrown at him...
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A house without either a cat or a dog is the house of a scoundrel. ~ Portuguese Proverb
I'm not sure why, but I just got done reading most of the posts there...
Unfortunately, the guy is a scammer, no doubt about it. I actually thought it was right and honest of one of the owners of the shop to say he made a mistake by not having payments made all along.
If we get a large printing job in (like a $15,000 job), most assuredly at least 1/2 is paid for up front unless you are an established client.
It's a sad situation... I feel for those guys... they've learned the hard way.
As for the scammer - I hope he gets the book thrown at him...
I couldn't agree more.
I originally found the thread by mistake over on the corvette forum. I followed the link to the Tampa Racing forum on Wednesday and have been hooked on it ever since.
Today is Friday and the scammer has assured everyone he will get his car today, so it should be some interesting reading throughout the day today. Can't wait to see what happens.
Saddest part of the whole thing is that kid is ruined for life now. Most prospective employers type a potential employee's name into google and when that happens to him, he is done for. He already has a criminal record for fraud and recently got out of jail because of it and now he is back to his old ways..... I feel bad for his mother and brother. It was reported the mother suffered a heart attack a few days ago because of all of this.
VORTEX...... check the local papers and see if you can shed any more light on this one. Aren't you in Ocala? It would be really cool if you knew where the shop was and took a moment to pop in there and let them know we at AFM are hoping the best for them. I did register over on TR forum and posted my thoughts and well wishes for the shop. Hopefully they can come out of this with their business still intact.
Richard
__________________
Richard
Resident manual transmission/driveline guru
Tech Sales Support American Powertrain A Tremec Elite Distributor
TKO, T45, 3650, T5 & T56 Transmission Systems 2199 Summerfield Rd
Cookeville, TN 38506 (931) 646-4836
Major internet pwnage...... 
