u/JttsMN

I’m currently suing someone who stole almost $10k from me in Minnesota. He knows exactly what he did and has ignored every single court appearance so far. After months of nonsense, there is finally a warrant out, and from my understanding he’ll be held until he submits a report listing his assets.

Here’s my concern: I’m almost certain he’s going to claim he owns nothing.

This guy basically operates like a professional scammer. He presents himself as a contractor and regularly shows up driving multiple newer/nice work trucks. My guess is he’ll try to say the vehicles aren’t his or are under someone else’s name.

Is there any legitimate way to search public records and see what vehicles are registered to someone by name? Or another way to verify whether someone is hiding assets before or during post-judgment collections?

I know in theory the court should verify this stuff… but based on my experience so far, I have very little confidence anyone is going to dig deeper unless I hand them the information myself.

Has anyone dealt with this before or successfully collected from someone who plays these kinds of games?

That whole situation sounds like a legal version of hide-and-seek, except one player owes you ten grand.

I’m not law enforcement, lawyer, or trying to play vigilante here—but I’m honestly at my breaking point and need advice from people who may have dealt with something similar.
About 5 years ago, while living in Arizona, my motorcycle got stolen.
I immediately reported it stolen, gave police the VIN, photos, paperwork—everything. My wife is super organized, so there was zero missing information.
A few weeks later, I’m driving and randomly spot my stolen bike on the highway.
Adrenaline kicks in. I follow the guy home, park nearby, and call police.
Over an hour later, officers finally arrive… and then tell me they can’t go in the garage because the original officer apparently entered the VIN incorrectly into the system. They literally blamed me for giving bad info, even though I had even sent them photos of the VIN and documents.
Then it gets even crazier.
After police leave, I watch the guy leave again on my motorcycle. He stops at a store, goes inside, and I decide screw it—I walk up, confirm it’s my bike, realize it’s been hotwired, and ride it home myself.
Then I call police again they tell me to stay put and wait. After waiting another hour, I finally just ride the bike to the police department.
A cop comes outside after waiting another hour at the pd checks the VIN, looks at me, and says:
“Okay… what do you want us to do? You brought us a bike you own. Where’s the crime?”
Since the ignition was cut off, insurance considered it frame damage/totaled. My deductible was basically the value of the bike.
So despite recovering it, I still lost the bike and all my money. The whole experience completely killed my faith in the system, and eventually after kicking the can enough I moved to Minnesota thinking maybe things would be better.
Spoiler: not much better.
About a year ago, I hired a contractor to do siding on my house.
He claimed he was licensed, insured, etc., and even provided documents that looked legitimate.
I gave him an $8,200 deposit.
Then he disappeared.
Stopped answering calls. Never came back.
After some Googling, I learned this guy has apparently done this MANY times before.
Previously imprisoned for similar scams
History of theft by swindle
17 judgments against him
Contractor license revoked
So I call local police.
An investigator comes out, I show him EVERYTHING: fake documents, payment records, contract, background info, court records.
His response?
“Sounds civil.”
A few days later the investigator texts me asking me to type everything up and submit a report.
At this point I’m having flashbacks to Arizona.
Everyone tells me to sue civilly, so I do.
Predictably, the contractor never shows up to hearings. Meanwhile, I have to keep paying to have him served over and over.
I’m now over $1,000 deeper in court fees chasing a guy who already stole $8,200 from me.
During my first conversation with police, the investigator suggested I call the county where the contractor lives (about 30 minutes away) to verify his address.
So I do.
That investigator tells me he already knows exactly who this guy is, knows what’s going on, but says it’s civil unless there’s a warrant.
Fast forward: I now have a warrant issued.
Great, right?
Wrong.
I call back and basically get told:
“Yeah, we don’t really pursue those.”
And to make it even better, the warrant literally says:
DO NOT DETAIN
So… what exactly is the point of a warrant nobody intends to enforce?
Meanwhile this guy is STILL actively advertising roofing/siding services, pretending to be licensed, collecting deposits, and ghosting people.
I reported him to Minnesota Department of Labor & Industry.
Their answer is basically: “Well, his license is already revoked, so maybe we can fine him.”
Cool.
That’ll definitely stop a guy whose business model appears to be fraud.
And just when I thought the process couldn’t get any more absurd…
At my last court appearance, I expressed frustration because this honestly feels like an open-and-shut case.
The judge’s advice?
“You should hire an attorney.”
Absolutely not.
I am NOT dumping more money into this broken system or into the judges buddies pockets just to chase money that was already stolen from me.
So I asked if there were any public defenders or legal resources available to help victims navigate this.
His response?
“Public defenders are only for defendants.”
Which honestly made me wonder: who exactly is this system protecting and serving?
He handed me a phone number for legal help.
I call it, explain my situation, and get told:
“Yeah… no, we can’t help with that. But here’s a website that might help.”
I go to the website.
The website tells me to… call the same phone number.
At that point I felt like I was trapped in some government-themed escape room.
So at this point I’m genuinely asking:
What are regular people actually supposed to do in this situation?
I looked into citizen’s arrest and was told I can’t do that unless I witness an active crime.
My response was: I literally watched this guy steal my money through fraud.
Apparently that doesn’t count. It has to be an active crime in front of my eyes at the time.
So what am I supposed to do here?
Wait until he scams more people?
Contact media?
Attorney General?
Something else entirely?
I’m obviously not trying to do anything stupid or illegal, but it feels insane watching someone repeatedly commit what seems like obvious fraud while every agency just shrugs and says “civil matter.”
I don’t want to be that guy but I’ve been paying taxes a long time where’s my representation in that deal?
How do you actually get law enforcement or prosecutors to care about repeat fraud like this?
How can an ordinary man bring charges to the court?