Hey guys I need some advice on a little pickle I just got myself into.
Yesterday evening I went out to Santa Fe Springs to pick up a 2JZ motor out of a 2003 IS300 with my dad, it was for sale for a couple hundred bucks. The plan was to pull out the motor in my dads 98 SC300 with over 210K miles and throw this bad boy in with under 10K miles. The transaction went by smoothly, claimed owner was very nice and answered all of my questions. Everything seemed legit at this point.
Anyways his story was that this motor was in HIS show car, a 2003 Lexus IS300. It even made it into a 2006 issue of D Sport magazine. Anyways everything was fine a dandy until 5 minutes ago when I get a call from an 808 area code.....Hawaii
This guy asks me about a 2JZ motor I had just purchased. I'm like yeah I just picked up a motor whats up?? He kindly asks me if I can check the vin on it and I asked why?? So he goes on about a legal battle hes been going through since 2003 where he had his car shipped to some shop here in Cali to get hooked up. Well the sucker gets stolen and it turned up with out a motor. So now I'm just like alright read me the vin and I'll tell you if it matches. So he reads it to me slowly and every thing he says is spot on, this motor is HOT!!!!
He's like holy shit that motor is mine, so I ask him how he got my motor. The dude had the small accent and the wasn't too clear on the phone but what I understood was he had word that some guy might have his motor and that was just sold. He got the info about my number from the dude that sold it to me yesterday but that same guy wasn't being very cooperative. I'm not sure if he was acting stupid or is stupid since yesterday he asked me how a cherry picker works
Anyways we just shelled out $400 bucks for this motor and I want to know if I can get my money back. I have not contacted the guy I bought from yet. I'm waiting to get some email from the Hawaiian dude first and I don't want to call and screw something up with my big mouth.
I have to jam to class be back on tonight