A Florida woman drove a stolen car for two years without knowing, and now she’s paying $330 a month for a vehicle she had to give back

Amber Wolnomiejski from Orange County, Florida, unknowingly drove a stolen 2019 Nissan Rogue for two years. Now she’s without the SUV and still stuck paying off a roughly $20,000 auto loan. The nightmare began in Dec. 2025, when deputies from the Orange County Sheriff’s Office uncovered an alleged vehicle identification number (VIN) fraud scheme tied to her SUV.

According to Mandatory, the vehicle was eventually seized and returned to its rightful owner, Enterprise Rent-A-Car. Wolnomiejski, meanwhile, is still legally obligated to pay $330 every month for a vehicle that she no longer has.

The bizarre discovery began when deputies inspected the Nissan Rogue at Wolnomiejski’s home. They initially found that the primary VIN plate visible through the driver’s side dashboard was fraudulent. But that was only the beginning. A closer inspection of the vehicle’s frame revealed a second VIN, and that number did not match the one displayed on the dashboard.

The dealership denied any wrongdoing

Investigators then found a third VIN stamped inside the vehicle’s engine components. That number matched a Nissan Rogue that had been reported stolen from a local rental fleet in April 2019.

The three different VINs reportedly pointed to a much bigger problem. Investigators believe the SUV had been subjected to a process known as “re-VINing,” in which the identifying information on a stolen vehicle is altered or replaced to make it appear legitimate.

Wolnomiejski purchased the Nissan Rogue in 2023 from LC Motors 1 Inc., a used car dealership in Orlando. Believing she was buying a legitimate vehicle from a licensed dealership, she went through the normal financing process and took out a loan to pay for it.

After police seized the SUV, Wolnomiejski filed a civil lawsuit against LC Motors 1, accusing the dealership of breach of contract, civil theft and fraudulent inducement. She also questioned how a dealership that regularly buys and sells vehicles could have missed three different VINs on the same SUV.

LC Motors 1, however, has pointed to where it originally got the vehicle. An employee told Mandatory that the dealership purchased the Nissan through Manheim, a major wholesale vehicle auction company that it had worked with for several years.

Manheim has also pushed back against responsibility for the alleged fraud. A company spokesperson said the business does not own the vehicles sold through its auctions and is not a consumer-facing operation, meaning it relies on law enforcement and other partners to identify potential criminal activity involving vehicles.

The Orange County Sheriff’s Office has classified Wolnomiejski as an innocent victim in the case. The agency also warned that “re-VINing” is an old tactic used by vehicle thieves, while the growth of online marketplaces has given criminals more ways to sell stolen vehicles to unsuspecting buyers.

Carfax helps

Law enforcement officials have urged consumers to do their homework before purchasing used vehicles, including checking vehicle-history reports through services such as CARFAX.

For Wolnomiejski, however, that advice came a little too late. She is now left without the SUV she thought she bought legitimately, while still making monthly payments on a vehicle that was allegedly stolen years before it ever reached her driveway.