After two years of appeals, it appears that Fred Perillo will be facing a prison sentence for allegedly stealing classic cars from people who paid him to store their vehicles. Perillo is the owner of a garage where many people paid for him to store their classics, while others paid for work on their cars.
Unfortunately, many of those cars were allegedly stolen and sold by Perillo. According to ABC News 10, Perillo is accused of switching the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) tags with junkyard vehicles in order to obtain a title. Once he had his new title, he would simply forge the car owner’s signature and then sell the car to an unsuspecting party.
In 2015 Perillo was found guilty of multiple felonies, but he kept appealing the result for two years. Despite charges and allegations, Perillo claims that he is innocent of all of the allegations against him.
This process of replacing the VIN’s happened multiple times. According to ABC News 10, Carmen Montanaro and his uncle Ralph Petrock had 22 cars that were allegedly stolen by Perillo. Montanaro told ABC, that he and his uncle went to check on their car collection and it was just gone.
Another victim was James Belcher; Perillo charged thousands of dollars to perform work on his Chevrolet Chevelle. Belcher’s Chevelle remained disassembled after two years at Perillo’s; none of the work was performed, but the money was all gone.
According to Montanaro, Perillo is faking his disability after catching him on video walking without assistance, or braces, or his helmet. It looks like this alleged bad actor’s performance could earn him up to 11-years in state prison.