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More often than not, whenever you – a client – buy an merchandise, you alternate your cash, and also you get the merchandise. It’s easy. Typically, when commissioning a customized car, for instance, you pay a portion of the entire value of the car upfront after which make extra funds primarily based on a purchase order settlement that each you, the client, and the builder have signed. Easy, proper? Properly, it’s not so easy for those who’re Mark Racop, proprietor of Fiberglass Freaks.
Racop agreed to construct one in every of his formally licensed Sixties Batmobile replicas for Bay Space actual property agent Sam Anagnostou, and regardless of issues going initially effectively after Anagnostou made his preliminary $170,000 cost towards a complete car value of round $210,000, the deal soured quickly after. In accordance with a report printed Friday by ABC7 Bay Space Information, the Atherton, CA-based actual property agent missed a $20,000 cost which was agreed upon as a part of the acquisition course of, in line with a press release by Racop.
Racop claims he made a number of efforts over a number of months to contact Anagnostou concerning the cost. When he obtained no response, he bumped Anagnostou’s automotive to the underside of his nine-vehicle-long construct queue including between 18 and 24 months to his wait. That is the place issues begin to go means off the rails.
As soon as the automotive was moved down the checklist and Anagnostou was knowledgeable, he “exploded,” in line with Racop, however then proceeded to repay the remaining steadiness on the car. Shortly after this, Anagnostou filed a report along with his native Atherton police division, which the San Mateo County district legal professional denied, opting to not file felony prices. From there, our intrepid actual property agent additionally filed a lawsuit in San Mateo County alleging that Racop and Fiberglass Freaks breached their contract and dedicated fraud. This case was dismissed by a choose who stated the go well with belonged in Indiana courts.
Then Anagnostou went full “I wish to converse to your supervisor” and reached out to his Fb pal, San Mateo County Sheriff Carlos Bolano. The realtor allegedly requested the sheriff to intervene, which it seems Bolano did by securing warrants for Racop’s e mail communications and freezing his checking account. He then, additionally allegedly, ordered a lieutenant, sergeant and two deputies to fly to Indiana and have an effect on a raid on the Fiberglass Freaks workplaces.
The raid resulted in Bolano’s deputies taking two recordsdata of paperwork and hauling Racop right down to his native police station for an hour earlier than letting him go with out arresting him. Later, San Mateo county charged him with two felonies – acquiring cash by false pretenses and diversion of building funds.
Now, this all stinks to me. I wish to understand how Bolano (who misplaced his reelection and is getting the boot from workplace in January) was in a position to persuade a choose in Indiana to authorize search warrants and account freezes for Mark Racop’s enterprise when his personal district legal professional had beforehand dismissed Anagnostou’s makes an attempt to press prices. I’ve tried to contact Decide Stephen Kitts of Cass County, who approved the search warrant for the San Mateo County sheriff’s officers, to grasp what compelling proof the San Mateo county sheriff supplied that satisfied him to permit the search, however he didn’t instantly return our request for remark.
I additionally tried contacting Sheriff Bolano however was informed he was out of the workplace. Voicemails left with the San Mateo Sheriff’s press data officer have additionally not been returned. Persevering with the theme of being inconceivable to succeed in, Sam Anagnostou hasn’t responded to voicemails asking for remark both, all of which leads me to imagine that this complete factor blew up in a means that no one supposed, and everybody appears to be circling their wagons.
So, is that this a case of a wealthy, bleached-out boomer getting unnecessarily spicy as a result of he discovered that the principles of a signed contract utilized to him, an abuse of police energy, or is it a authentic gripe? It’s inconceivable to say for sure at this level. Nonetheless, the San Mateo County district court docket is ready to start the method of discovering out what precisely it was beginning on August 19, when Racop will seem earlier than the court docket for a warrant arraignment.
