Sunnyvale car consignment company disappears

SUNNYVALE, Calif. (KGO) -- Many customers at the Sunnyvale Motorcars company are fuming after the company they hired to sell their high-end cars has suddenly disappeared along with their vehicles.

It's happening in the South Bay, where people hoping to sell their cars are realizing they may have been ripped off.

Neelothpali Velamuri owns a 2005 GMC Yukon, only she has no idea where it is. She signed it over to Sunnyvale Motorcars on El Camino Real. She gave the car consignment center her title, so they could sell it for her. But on Sunday, her husband went by the lot to find it empty.

"I was hoping that this guy just moved the cars to some other area, he would give a call to us saying that it is there. We were hoping some miracle, but nothing," said Velamuri.

The website for Sunnyvale motorcars says it's under maintenance and a phone call gets you a message and a voicemail box that's full. The business does still have its YouTube website showing cars for sale. But that's little comfort for Velamuri, who's worried her car could be headed out of the country. She and her husband filed a police report.

"They took the information, they told us that it is just the beginning. Nobody has come forward yet so they would be looking into this and they will let us know," said Velamuri.

When they filed the report, the found out there are other victims out there. There's a long list of complaints on Yelp.

Velamuri and her husband contacted the DMV and filed a courtesy stop of the title transfer. So if someone tries to sell the Yukon. It won't go through. As of this afternoon, Velamuri and her husband are still the registered owners. If they ever get their vehicle back, they say they'll sell it themselves.

"No more trusting consignment stores, even if they're good people. No offense to the good people, but still no, because this is one big lesson you don't want to forget in your lifetime," said Velamuri.

At the business there's only a desk or two inside the office and there is no note on the door or anything, only a FedEx sticker for a delivery. The police say they are aware of what's going on and are looking into it.

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sunnyvale, south bay news, ama daetz

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