Donald Cameron took a car for a test drive on Monday afternoon, and the salesman says he is still waiting for him to come back.
It wasn’t the first time the folks at A+ Auto Centre had seen Cameron on their lot, but as the hours ticked by on his test drive, they began to think it would be the last.
Cameron, a man with fraud and theft convictions all across Canada, is now charged with stealing a 2014 Ford Focus in St. John’s about 12 hours before he was arrested at the ferry terminal in Port aux Basques on Monday night.
Cameron is due for a bail hearing in provincial court in St. John’s this morning. He has warrants for his arrest in at least six other Canadian cities where he skipped town.
Evans, an experienced salesman, says he was fooled by a man who seemed trustworthy.
“He sat there in my office and seemed like the real deal,” he said. “He asked all the right questions. He said all the right things.”
Evans had first met him two weeks earlier, when he walked onto the lot with a Tim Hortons coffee in hand and asked about a 2011 Nissan Rogue.
He said he took the vehicle for a test drive, but returned before long and said he was uncomfortable driving around without up-to-date registration stickers.
Unbeknownst to the salesman, there was already a warrant for Cameron’s arrest in St. John’s.
Evans said Cameron spoke about having a wife who was sick with cancer.
She would have their vehicle at a cancer clinic while undergoing treatment, Evans recalled him saying, and he needed a vehicle to drive.
On Monday, Evans spotted him on the lot again, Tim Hortons coffee in hand, but this time eyeing a Ford sedan.
The two men talked about vehicles and hockey before Cameron took the car and went for a test drive.
As he rolled off the lot, Evans said he texted his boss and told him they had a slam dunk sale.
More than two hours passed, and after several unanswered phone calls, Cameron called from a private number and said he brought the car to King’s Bridge Auto for an inspection, Evans said.
“He knew that to sell a used car in the province, it has to be inspected. He knew all the tricks.”
Read the original story from CBC News.
