Ashutosh Pathak and his brother needed to buy a new vehicle for their families. After searching, they finally found a Ford F-150 they felt would be perfect.
“We found the truck in Ponoka (at) Summit Ram. As any consumer would do, we went in there and checked and inspected the vehicle,” Pathak said.
They thought they’d done their due diligence, but then police showed up and took the truck away.
“We got the truck in October 2025, and in November RCMP seized the truck.
“We only had the truck for a month and a half.”
The pickup turned out to have been stolen and the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) had been altered.
Pathak had no idea, despite going through the proper channels. They checked the VIN and made a point to purchase a truck from a reputable dealership, as opposed to a private sale via Facebook Marketplace or an individual.
Pathak said he and his brother paid for the truck through their line of credit and savings — it was nearly $40,000.
They bought it from Kaizen Auto Group’s Summit Ram in Ponoka, who said they didn’t know it was stolen.
Pathak made a complaint to AMVIC — the Alberta Motor Vehicle Industry Council.
Pathak said its investigation found the dealership didn’t know the vehicle was stolen and was not in the wrong.
He was told to go through insurance, but the insurance said because it wasn’t stolen from Pathak, it’s not covered.
That means Pathak is out $40,000 and has no truck. The vehicle is going to auction next week. He can pursue legal action, but he said he can’t afford to hire a lawyer.
“It’s like daytime robbery to me, nobody is taking accountability,” Pathak said.
“Everybody is giving a clean sheet to each other and at the end, who is the victim here? Me.”
The Alberta Law Enforcement Response Teams’ auto theft unit calls this a prolific problem, and it’s not just used vehicles targeted — new automobiles can also have their VINs tampered with.
“For dealerships it is often difficult to detect, because individuals who are re-VINing vehicles in the province know their craft well,” ALERT auto crimes Sgt. Brandon Crozier said.
“They can make their labels appear legitimate.”
Crozier said this can be devastating for families who are left on the hook for the cost of the vehicle and nothing to show for it.
“It comes down to who has the higher onus —who has the higher burden of proof to take responsibility. Between a privately sold vehicle and another, that is a dispute between them.
“A vehicle sold between a customer and a dealership… It’s between them, unfortunately. Dealerships say ‘well we’ve done all the checks we could and we’re not negligent in our business practices.'”
When customers go to a dealership, Crozier said they expect to be sold vehicles that are safe —not listed as salvage or rebuilt, and not listed as a stolen vehicle. He said that doesn’t even enter many buyer’s minds.
“Before going to a dealership, get to know the dealership. I would ask them about their best practices of what they do to ensure vehicles are safe and legitimate to be on a roadway,” Crozier said.
Global News asked Kaizen Auto Group for an interview but they didn’t respond.
Instead on Friday, the Calgary-based auto group released a statement saying it was aware of the situation and had been working with Pathak and AMVIC for months.
Kaizen said it was “given information” on Friday morning that the truck may have been fraudulently purchased in 2024 and that fraud was reported to the RCMP.
“It appears that the information was not uploaded into the RCMP database for stolen vehicles. Summit Ram at the time of sale completed a lien search and VIN verification and followed all standard precautions to confirm the vehicle was free and clear. All checks came back clean and verified,” the company said.
“We have been in contact with both law enforcement and the relevant financial institutions to better understand why the vehicle was seized from the home of the customer without providing any relevant information to the customer nor Summit Ram.”
Kaizen said it believes resolving the matter should involve insurance providers and the appropriate authorities.
“We will continue to work with the customer, the banks, and authorities to ensure this matter is addressed appropriately and that the customer is made whole,” the dealership group said.
Global News has asked the RCMP for more information in light of Kaizen Auto Group’s statement.
Alberta Services Minister Dale Nally said in a statement to Global News that the situation is completely unacceptable.
“When an Albertan buys a vehicle from a licensed dealership, it should always be able to be legally owned. Licensed dealerships have a responsibility to ensure the vehicles they sell meet the requirements to be legally registered,” Nally said.
Nally stressed the government will meet with AMVIC to get answers to understand how this happened and whether improvements are needed to strengthen oversight and prevent such a situation from happening again.
In relation to Pathak’s truck, RCMP have charged Tanya Michelle Murray, 49, of St. Paul with fraud, forgery and uttering a forged document.
She was taken before a Justice of the Peace and released. Her next appearance is set for in August.
The RCMP said in an email that despite auto theft numbers dropping, this is a trending crime type.
Purchasers are encouraged to conduct licence checks, Carfax, and Carproof as well as ensure they are purchasing from a reputable dealer. These checks may assist in identifying suspicious vehicles.
© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
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