The Region : ‘Film Producers’ Hit It Big in Car Scam

They were Hollywood producers making a film with rocker Bruce Springsteen’s wife, and they were in a car-buying mood. “They wanted it to pick her up at the airport and drive her around in,” said John Gooch, sales manager of McGinnis Cadillac in Houston. He let the smooth-talking duo--who gave the names Mark Oldham and John Paul Stewart--test-drive several models for a week before taking their $50,000 cashier’s check, drawn on a California bank, and letting them drive off in a 1981 Rolls-Royce Silver Spirit. Now the bank has told the dealer that the check was forged. The California address where the title was mailed turned out to be a rented post office box, and the title later was forwarded to Hong Kong. The bank also reported receiving similar forged checks from Hong Kong, Thailand, Mexico City and New Mexico. Said a chastened Gooch: “With all the movies made around here, it sounded normal.”