BEATRICE – A Gage County resident who purchased a 2018 Ford pickup for cash after seeing it on a social media site…was buying a stolen vehicle.  

Gage County Sheriff’s officers said the buyer agreed to meet the seller in St. Joseph, Missouri, paid $35,000 cash and received what appeared to be a valid title from another state.

Nebraska law requires a vehicle and paperwork to be brought to the sheriff’s office where a records check can be made to see if it is stolen.  During that process, authorities learned the truck had been reported stolen in Houston, Texas.

Authorities say Gage County is still one of only a few counties in the state to use an onboard diagnostic device during the process….which reported a different vehicle identification number than the one on the title and the number visible on the vehicle.

Gage County officers secured the vehicle in a county evidence facility. A Nebraska Department of Motor Vehicles fraud investigator is now involved in the case, to see if the matter is possibly tied to other cases of fraudulent titles in Nebraska.