A case of someone that needs serious psychiatric help and some anger management......

Customer Who Torched Dealership Resigns City Job

Upset With The Price For A New SUV

As Customers Watched, He Torched The Business

$150K Limited Edition Blue Ford GT among 11 Cars Destroyed

Gary Nelson
Reporting
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(CBS4) NORTH MIAMI Gerald Georgettis is unemployed today, just two days after he drove his brand new SUV into the Metro Ford dealership, doused it and other cars with gasoline, and set them ablaze. He quit his job with the city of North Miami, and asked for speedy action with his severance pay, because he needed the money to hire a lawyer.

Georgettis, until Monday a performance art theatre manager for the City of Miami, has been charged with arson after he apparently snapped over a dispute on the price of his new SUV. He was released after posting bond Sunday.

Police say Georgettis believes he was scammed. “When he talks with the investigators, he told then that he was told one price for the vehicle, but when he got home and looked at the paperwork, it was something else,” said Miami-Dade detective Robert Williams. “it was considerably more.”

Witnesses watched Georgettis drive the SUV into the building and start the fire. Denise Cruz was in line at the body shop, and was standing near Georgettis when he lit the match. “And the next thing you heard was BOOM, and you saw flames all over the place,” said Cruz. “And I said to him, and I said sir, why would you want to do that?”

The fire quickly spread throughout the dealership, destroying cars, computers, and business paperwork. While the fire burned, Georgettis, now without a car, apparently calmly walked off down the street, where police officers found him a short time later. Officers claim Georgettis was yelling “Kill me, Kill me,” but officers took him into custody without incident.

At the dealership, 11 cars were destroyed including Georgettis new SUV. Also damaged, a limited edition baby-blue Ford GT, one of just 250 produced and a collectors item worth $150,000.

Sunday, Georgettis he was released from jail after paying just $1500 on a $15,000 bond. Monday, he saw his boss and resigned.
“The city has not had problems with him, he had no disciplinary actions registered against him, and everybody in the city is as surprised as everyone else about this incident,” said North Miami Beach City Manager Gary Brown.

Because there were people in the building, Georgettis is charged with first degree Arson, which carries the penalty of up to 30 years in prison.

Miami-Dade police say they regularly get calls to auto dealerships from people upset with their car purchase, and the Consumer Federation of America says auto dealer fraud tops it’s list of complaints.

Georgettis is not speaking with reporters, and neither is the car dealer whose business he destroyed. When asked by CBS4 Reporter Gary Nelson for a comment, an unidentified spokesman for the dealership said “I understand, there’s no have no comment right now. I’d appreciate it if you can respect that, we’re just trying to get our business back to normal, that’s all.”

Total damage to Metro Ford has been estimated at almost $1 million dollars.

.




Dave Game, CBS4 news
(© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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“The city has not had problems with him, he had no disciplinary actions registered against him, and everybody in the city is as surprised as everyone else about this incident,” said North Miami Beach City Manager Gary Brown.

Gerald Georgettis
CBS4 News


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what an idiot

 

Wow, what an idiot, what a waste of an awesome car!

 

Ouch That's what I would have rescued! I'm glad it appears no one was injured!

 

Imagine that a $150K limited edition Ford GT with Zero miles already destroyed! Yes what an idiot. This guy does not sound remorseful at all!

Well at least he managed to completely ruin his life.

 

What a horrible thing! So fortunate nobody was injured (according to that account). And it's a horrible shame that the rare GT was destroyed.

You are right, C4....his life is now officially ruined.

 

And he should spend the rest of it in jail

Earl

 

Is that like a street performance "art" manager? Clowns, jugglers, fire-eaters, sword-swollowers, etc, or mainstream theatre? I guess he never thought that one through. I hope his restitution include the Fair Market Value for the GT40 not Replacement Value or MSRP. Those may be a car worth more after you drive them off the lot, I never knew they were only making 250 of them, well... only 249 of them, NOW.

 

I think the proper expression is the "horse is already out of the gate" at this point, like trying to get the toothpaste back in the tube...

 

What the guy did was drive his Ford Escape (the vehicle he was annoyed about) through the window and into the showroom of the dealership. He doused his car with gas and some of the surrounding area and lit it all on fire. From the pictures, the GT was collateral damage, it wasn't the target. His Escape and the dealership in general was the target.

And it didn't have 0 miles, there isn't a car that makes it to a dealer with 0 miles. Lowest I've ever seen is 6.

Either way though, it's a pretty stupid thing to do....

 

I'm certainly not defending what this guy did by any means, but Miami car dealers are notorious for scamming customers.

I had an experience not unlike his at a Toyota dealership in Kendall some years ago. When I demanded my previous car back immediately (alowable under the law, at least then) the dealer rescinded and offered me a car equipped comparable to what I was shown I was getting. I took it, and all was well... no fistfights, no fires but yikes you have to watch them closely

 

Scenario: you have a verbal agreement wth dealer re: price. You sign contract without reading it. After getting home, you notice dealer padded price by $x000. You go back to dealer, who waves contract under your nose and tells you to *iss off. You realize that the verbal agreement is worth nothing.
Yeah, I can see it. Wouldn't do it, but I can see it happening.

 

You want to turn the DEALER on his head in this scenario? Kill the financing somehow. If you are fast and can figure the way to do it, all of a sudden the DEALER is holding the bag for tens of thousands of dollars. Used cars mysteriously reappear and sales prices get rewritten. After they yell at you and threaten lawsuits and all, they settle down and realize you have them by the ****. My roomate did it for a secretary friend of ours when they screwed around with her on a car deal a few years back. He'd been in the car business for 30 years and knew exactly how to tighten the screws down on them, loads of fun. Ignored the phone calls for a week or so, they finally called and said come in an they'd fix the deal. For a week they had just screamed to bring "their" car back which was in an unknown to them location. Then they gave her the deal she had bargained for.

 

Well now the value of all those GTs just went up

 

Well all I can say is "wow I hope it doesn't happen to me!!" I work at a dealer who just recently took on 5 more franchises on top of the four that we already had. Well one of the 5 new franchises we aquired is FORD. Although it could happen at any franchise dealership....it seems like people that buy fords, chevies, dodges and other low class american made automobiles tend to get more emtional than those of us who drive imported vehicles. I know this first hand because our dealership houses vehicles from PT Cruiser (pieces of $#!t) to Porsche 911 Turbo's worth over $130,000. You can really tell the difference between a guy who drives around in a Dodge stratus and someone who has a Carrera as a daily driver. I guess what this all boils down to is that I should try to stay in my building and avoid walking across the parking lot into the Ford building as much as possible.

 

I guess you have NOT read too many of the threads about detailing, minute or imagined scratches from car wash during services, extreme parking strategies, etc. I think plenty of folks here get pretty emotional about their import vehicles.

 

i guess that's why our snooty local porsche dealer (who was wearing a very
nice leather duster) wouldn't talk to us when we arrived in my SO's
beater plymouth sundance.

bought one elsewhere.

somehow i don't feel sorry for the ford dealer.

 

If it was a Gulf Scheme GT, I might cry!

 

I dont see why everybody is calling this guy an idiot...,I mean I wouldnt do what he did but I can see how can a person snap when he gets cheated.
It happen to my father many years ago at a Chevy dealership.The difference was, that maryland liberal laws protect consumers from scam business like dealerships for 5 days after the purchase.I took the car back and I ask for the amount of overcharge or they keep the car......You guess right,they refunded the difference.
Thanks to the bravery of this Miami DUDE, from now on, some of these punks will carry some fear on the backs when they try to cheat.

 

Yeah, well that is what I meant by his life is officially ruined, sweetie.

 

Should this guy even be out on bond?

 

Since when is vigilante justice called for or even legal?

Even in the Banana Republic of Miami there are laws. This guy didn't seek legal advice, he didn't consult with an attorney. No, he just decided to take things into his own hands and a)destroy the car he paid for (even if he wasn't happy with how much he paid for it) and b) has probably now forfeited any possibility of getting restitution if in fact he had been wronged in the first place, and on top of that he'll probably land his butt in jail...

What he did wasn't wise, prudent, or called for. Not only was it illegal, but it put lives at risk too. I would bet that once the dealership collects the insurance money and makes their repairs that they'll go right back to doing business they way they were in the past...

Never mind the fact that we don't know what the deal looked like, if this guy was actually screwed or if he either just didn't pay attention (entirely possible) or just can't add. Instead we have the flawed argument that "well I/my friend/relative was screwed once by a dealer in Miami, therefore all dealers in Miami must be crooks."

Gimme a break.

 

It was.

 

Tell me what that entails, just a paint job or other things. I guess I'll go look it up so I can join you in a good cry...

 

I don't know what it entails besides paint but man, it's a beauty!