What we know<\/p>\n
Leon Goins said he was the proud owner of a vintage car for the last 20 years.<\/p>\n
![\"<div>Courtesy:](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/4746d7fa025523d4c375235a60b35d6a.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
Recently, Goins was working to restore his vehicle to driving conditions, so it was parked outside of his garage.<\/p>\n
“A vintage 1977 Buick Electra that I had parked here at my garage with a car cover on it, backed in, as you see\u2026 the Jeep was removed without my permission and sold to a scrapyard,” Goins said.<\/p>\n
The backstory<\/p>\n
Goins’ car was swiped from under his nose.<\/p>\n
“A 1977 Buick Electra, original condition that I’ve owned for over 20 years,” Goins said. “The sentimental value.”<\/p>\n
![\"<div>Courtesy:](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/c48f0e2aa9b0bc653937d43601f0942d.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
Goins said someone provided false documents to a tow truck company saying they owned the car, so a tow truck took his Buick and delivered it to a scrap metal yard where it was sold.<\/p>\n
“They told me I could take back my car once I arrived and that there would be a few dents and dings to it,” Goins said. “But when I arrived, it had no wheels and had been totaled.”<\/p>\n
Dig deeper<\/p>\n
The person accused in this case is now facing a felony charge for falsifying documents, but not theft.<\/p>\n
Goins still does not understand.<\/p>\n
Charles Gallagher is an attorney at Gallagher & Associates Law Firm. He said there is still time for the charges to change with more investigation.<\/p>\n
What they’re saying<\/p>\n
“I think once you have those facts nailed down, that’s sufficient for a theft charge, and for a prosecution for theft,” Gallagher\u00a0said.<\/p>\n
As for the tow truck company and scrapyard, Gallagher\u00a0said they could be liable for not verifying the ownership of the car.<\/p>\n
“Everyone’s got a duty of care, whether it be a tow yard, whether it be a tow truck driver, whether there be a scrapyard,” Gallagher said.\u00a0“And when you think people are not meeting that duty of care, pump the brakes, think twice, and see whether or not there might be a basis for some liability against those actors.”<\/p>\n
Goins said this happened to a neighbor’s family member, and they stopped it.<\/p>\n
Why you should care<\/p>\n
Goins wants people to know that this is a real problem.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/75baa975a50a37d5c3e3d0ee0649c022.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
“I really just wanted to make the public aware that this is a common occurrence,” Goins said.<\/p>\n
What we don’t know<\/p>\n
FOX 13 reached out to the state attorney’s office to ask why theft charges haven’t been filed, and if the investigation is ongoing. We are waiting to hear back.<\/p>\n
The Source<\/p>\n
Information for this story was gathered from interviews with a St. Pete resident and an attorney at Gallagher & Associates Law Firm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Brief A St. Petersburg man says his 1977 Buick Electra was stolen from outside his home while…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":264864,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[114139,220,13351,114138,12140,114140,202,204,203,199,201,200,114142,105942,114141],"class_list":["post-264863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-1977-buick-electra","tag-car","tag-charles-gallagher","tag-falsifying-documents","tag-felony-charge","tag-leon-goins","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-theft-charge","tag-theft-charges","tag-tow-truck-company"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264863\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}