How I lost my behind on a John Deere Lanz 440

[BigV]

I found a Deere Lanz in East TN. It had been imported with a pair of others, when a German emigrated to the US and had begun a chicken/egg operation with his American brother in law. It had been sold off, and then finally ended up with this farmer in East TN.

I sold one of my Superbee's to buy it, after the owner had ducked around on price and whether he wanted to sell it. He at least kept in touch, another guy didn't. So I bought the 440.

I took cash and a trailer and I got a bill of sale on it, made the owner come with me and get it notarized with me.

Well, contrary to plan, the owner's brother happened to have taken the 440 to go skid out a couple logs by the time we got back. It was dark by then, and I was busy with my dad the next couple days taking him to doctor's appointments.

I had made arrangements to go back and get the 440 another day, with the understanding it had better be at the farm, in the condition I purchased it, and ready to load out.

I went back, and the crawler was gone and so was the owner. The owner wouldn't take my calls but he called me using two phones at once- I got two simultaneous calls- and he used the one I did not answer to leave me a message about a family emergency in KY, blah blah blah.

So that has turned into a legal battle. Small claims has been an absolute joke. I had court order to either get the $4000 or the crawler, for close to a year. When the deadline on the order has come and gone, a contempt citation is issued, and the "judge"- just fines him, gives him more time.

I finally fired the attorney I had working on this, it was a waste of money.

So the countdown to the next citation is 16 days. I don't get the money from the citations, either, the wonderful state does.

I had fixed my 420C and that was small consolation, as I enjoyed using it the past year. I found out two days ago, the guy who had the Lanz had had the money in an account, and there was an order to garnish and the "judge" never went through on it.

That was enough of a kick in the balls that

I've looked up this guy's family tree and I have been to see his family in KY, they're pretty disgusted with him, and they've asked him to give it up to me. They've also been good about giving me a list of his friends places, and I've contacted the authorities where they live, told them what I was doing, and told them I was going out to ask those people if the crawler might be stored at their places, or if they know where it might be. Some have tried to be helpful, one wanted to shoot me and call it self defense, and several have just threatened me with trespassing. Each time I've left when I've asked, I've gone in like was I was a beggar at church service, hat in hand and been extremely nice, and never gotten mad or been rude.

I'd honestly say that he took my money and probably had it crushed. He may have sold it to someone else. It may be at his wife's place in Ohio, because his dad told me he wasn't in KY that week when he went missing with the crawler loader, that as far as he knew he was in Ohio.

The dad has several times offered to make it right, give me $4k and he would, but his dad didn't burn my butt, and his dad is like my dad- an honest older person without $4k to just give somebody. He gets a miner's pension, some money from a settlement on coal dust, and his social security.

I ride motorcycles and I now know the guy I got the 440 from is in some trouble with a local MC. They're basically good men and I'd trust them a lot farther than most people I know, but he made a lot worse mistake crossing them than he did me, even.

[77 Ford]

That's a terrible story.

In hindsight it was obviously all set up from the beginning. I have to say you're handling it very well and even thought I don't know you except thru the extended JD family I'm proud of you.

Keep your chin up and it sounds like he will get what he has coming, if not today or tomorrow it will happen someday soon. You can't live like that and be that big of a turd and not have it catch up to you.

[Lu47Dan]

Yep, it sucks to be ripped off.
I made a deal on a 430, had a $500 deposit on it and had done the work that our agreement called for.
Removed a beaver dam, arranged for a trapper to remove the beavers before removing the dam, and than lowering the level slowly over a period of three months until the pond was dry again. I than borrowed a mini-excavator to finish removing the dam. Piling up the brush into piles so he could burn it. I had about $1500 in expenses involved in the deal. Fuel trucking and rebuilding the thumb on the excavator. I finished up the work at the dam and moved up to the house to use the mini-excavator to load the crawler on the semi. I had the other $1000 in my pocket, called the owner to come over and unlock the building so i could drag the crawler out of the building. He hemmed and hawed around about it on the phone and I got the feeling he had sold it. I peeked into the building and confirmed my suspicions. The crawler was gone.
We had a written agreement, notarized also.
I called him back to give him a chance to come up with the deposit and the agreed upon penalties. He said that he would not live up to the agreement I an could sue him for it.
I also found out after hiring an attorney that he had transferred the land into his wife's name and had no assets to go after. So I was screwed.
I found out later that he had sold the crawler to cover gambling debts. I could have spent another few thousand dollars to recover the money.
What really frosts me on this was I had the cash to buy the crawler in the first place, but he wanted the beaver dam removed. as part of deal. I think he sold the crawler a few weeks after we made the deal on it. As there were not any tracks in the driveway when i walked the excavator up to the house.
Dan.

[username]

My friend bought a low hour Kubota loader backhoe for $18,000 and less than two years later a tiltbed showed up with papers and loaded it up.

The previous owner still owed on it and it was repossessed and there is little that that my friend can do about it.

[Lavoy]

BigV,
Just discovered my reply to your PM never went through for some reason, still stuck in my outbox. Check your inbox, and I sent you an e-mail a little while ago too.
Lavoy