Redline Auto-Sports LLC under investigation

When Denise Shelton bought her daughter a Jeep Grand Cherokee at Redline Auto-Sports LLC in Lenoir in April, she paid in cash.

Five months later, she still has no title, no registration, Redline Auto-Sports is closed, and the North Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles has launched an investigation into the dealership that sold her the vehicle, which she said has left at least 15 others in a similar situation.

“(The DMV investigator) said we would eventually get tag and title; however, it could take up to a year or more,” Shelton said. “The vehicle has to sit. I can’t drive it. When the DMV gets the tag and the title, they will let me get it, but I have to pay them again for taxes and the tag, even though I’ve already paid the other guy. But he kept my money.”

Although Redline Auto-Sports is registered to Rebecca Adkins through the North Carolina Secretary of State, it’s her husband, Jeff, who Shelton explained was the face of the business.

The Adkinses could not be reached for a statement. The phone number for Jeff provided by one of the people affected has since been disconnected.

Redline Auto-Sports now sits empty. No cars or U-Hauls fill the gravel lot like they used to, and Google searches return a red banner that reads “Permanently Closed.”

However, the investigative officer at the NC DMV confirmed that “there is an investigation (into Redline Auto-Sports) and we have no comment at this time.”

When Shelton posted a warning for others on Facebook, it quickly gained traction as the comment section filled with people recounting their experiences with the dealership.

“Basically, the only reason that I posted it was just to let people know that this was happening to them, because they may not have realized it yet and they needed to file a complaint with the DMV. I did not know it would turn into what it has, where all these people have lost so much money. It’s terrible.”

According to Shelton, an investigator from the DMV called her and said Jeff wasn’t paying his lenders after selling vehicles, so the title was still with the lender.

Another buyer, Ruby, was among those who spotted the post and reached out. She also said the investigators told her another 15 to 17 people were affected by Redline Auto-Sports.

Ruby requested that The Paper only publish her first name because her family is unaware of the amount of money she lost.

She retired in April, planning to sell everything she had and live in the bus as a way of ensuring her family didn’t have to handle her belongings and financials once she passed.

“I just want to live a freer life,” Ruby said, explaining that she’d worked for decades in a third-shift job and was ready to live off her retirement money — just enough to buy gas and food. “I was trying to get rid of the bills that tied me down, and my job tied me down for an extremely long time. I just wanted a sense of freedom.”

After Ruby purchased the 1996 Ford Econoline bus for $8,820, she planned to upfit it for living and travel state to state.

She said she and Jeff started texting about how to approach the project. During that time, Ruby said Jeff also planned to purchase RVs and sell them to someone he knew who was developing an Airbnb.

Jeff offered a business deal where Ruby gave him $6,720 to help purchase an RV, and he would return her money plus another $2,000, she said. She used her credit card to purchase both the bus and to pay Jeff for the RV.

“I didn’t feel like I had a reason to doubt him,” she explained. “He was a legitimate business owner. I’ve been by that lot lots of times.”

She agreed and, after asking him about it several times over the following weeks, she got nothing but crickets.

“I’m probably going to lose every penny I spent,” Ruby said, explaining that she is now trying to go back to work part-time to pay on her credit card bills.

Not long after the purchase, the van also stopped working. Then the DMV investigation required that she not drive it even if she got it road-ready, she said.

Ruby believes Jeff is now living in Kure Beach, a coastal North Carolina town on Pleasure Island about 15 miles south of Wilmington, with his wife, whom Ruby said investigators told her they don’t think was involved.

In total, she is out $15,540 between the bus and the business transaction and Shelton lost $10,000 in purchasing the Jeep — not to mention the replacement car Shelton had to get her daughter in lieu of the vehicle.

“(My daughter) doesn’t have a car and I don’t have an extra one,” Shelton said. “She doesn’t have transportation, and she’s got two kids to take to school and practice, and I have to buy another vehicle. Unfortunately, not everybody in this case has that option. I don’t know what some people are going to do.”