14 DAY TRIAL // Nowadays, you don't hear very often stories about acts of kindness and generosity, so this one will certainly warm your heart. An elderly Indiana man who unknowingly bought a stolen car last week got to keep the vehicle due to the rightful owner's kindness.
The car, a 1993 Chrysler New Yorker, vanished from a house in Boonville, Indiana, last week. According to Yahoo News, it had been stolen by Donald Grigsby, who took it away and sold it for $300 (€217) to the 72-year-old man whose identity has not been revealed to the press.
But later, the elderly man began thinking that the deal was just too good to be true and got suspicious about the vehicle's low price, so he decided to look for the car’s rightful owner, Derk West, and give him a call.
Since the thief had sold the car to the old man in the rightful owner’s name, it was not difficult for the buyer to find Mr. West. The two met at the septuagenarian's home, who was visibly upset with the situation. And he had every right to be mad. After all, he had been defrauded out of his hard earned $300 (€217).
However, in an unexpected twists of events, the old man's honesty paid off. After evaluating the situation and seeing all the trouble he had gone through, Mr. West decided to let the senior keep the car. Derk West explained that he was not using his '93 Chrysler New Yorker, and the vehicle had been sitting at his grandfather's house for about a year before it was stolen, so he determined the conned buyer needed it more than he did.
“72 years old and fixed income and stuff like that,” Mr. West said to a local television. “He was out $300, he was out the money and he was just, really upset. He told us, ‘Too good to be true.’ I just drove the car for several years as a work car…By the time it was over, I worked it out, I just wound up giving him the car. He needed it worse than I did.”
Catching the thief was actually a piece of cake for authorities. Police were able to track Grigsby down because he signed the receipt using his own name and his social security number. The 46-year-old man, from Evansville, Indiana was arrested by the Vanderburh County Sheriff's Department on April 13.