Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 219, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 September 1911 — TRYING TO GET MONEY BACK IN AUTO FRAUD. [ARTICLE]

TRYING TO GET MONEY BACK IN AUTO FRAUD.

Deal by Which William Kresel Was Fleeced Being Probed by Attorney W. H. Parkinson. Attorney W. H. Parkinson will go to East St. Louis, 111., Sunday, to take some depositions in the Winner automobile fraud case by which William Kresel, a highly respected farmer living south of Rensselaer, was defrauded out of about S4OO. If ever a crooked deal was pulled off that was one. The Winner. Manufacturing Co., of East St. Louis, interested Mr. Kresel in an automobile and made great claims for their car, called ‘‘The Winner.” They offered to sell a new car for S4OO. Of this amount $l5O was to be paid before the car was shipped and the balance was to be paid in honor of a draft for $250 through the Rensselaer First National Bank after the car was examined and had Mr. Kresel’s approval. The draft, however, did not grant the right of examination and Mr. Kresel was required to pay it before he could get the car. He did so und after trying the car found it so inferior that it could hardly be made to run on the main streets of the city. He went to the bank and ordered that the money he had paid be retained and not sent tot the Winner company, but a St. Louis bank put in a claim for the money, which they had advanced to the Winner company, The fraud is as plain as the nose on your face, but there seems a rather remote chance of recovering the money or any part of it. • The so-called automobile still remains Rensselaer Garage, where it has been since the day of its arrival. There is probably not a man in Jasper county who "Would pay $lO for it. The engine, which was supposed to be of 15-horse power, does not develop more than 3-horse power. The bed of the car is cheap and it looks more like a pushmobile constructed by a 10-year-old boy than it does like an automobile. The sale was a skin game and it is hard to recover when a fellow has been skinned. Since the negotiations were made by mail and were so clearly fraudulent, it is possible that Attorney Parkinson may be able to get at the officers of the Winner Manufacturing company through the postoffice department. It is an outrage that a man can be thus defrauded and have no means of recovery. In some countries the officials of the Winner Manufacturing company would go to the penitentiary for such a deal.