Nov 29, 2005 7:09 pm US/Central
Legislators Push To Regulate Car Donations
by Dave Savini
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
People donated cars to charity, but did the charities get cheated?
More victims are coming forward following CBS 2 Investigator Dave Savini's investigation into good gifts gone bad.
Now there is a push to regulate the industry.
Police shut down a towing and salvage yard that handles hundreds of thousands of dollars in charity car donations.
Now state lawmakers and the Illinois attorney general's office are targeting them and other car donation handlers following our CBS 2 investigation.
"We are obviously very concerned," said Therese Harris with the Illinois attorney general's office.
Melrose Park police shut down O'Hare Auto Recycling, also known as O'Hare Kars, for illegally operating without a business license.
The owners, the Zuccaro family, also are accused of not giving at least $10,000 in donation proceeds to designated charities. And William Zuccaro, who runs the business, is a convicted felon.
"That's serious, we are very concerned when money designated for charitable purposes does not go for the charitable purposes at all," Harris said.
Now the Illinois attorney general's office is investigating whether they have authority to take action.
"I wish this hadn't worked out the way it did," said Jim Kula, who donated his car to Easter Seals. The Zuccaros towed it, but the charity says it never received a dime.
"I gave two cars to charity," said Katrina Schwab, who donated to Kars-4-Kids in July.
She's still waiting for proof her donation, handled by the Zuccaros, reached the charity.
"I'm going to be very cautious from now on. Very cautious," Schwab said.
The Zuccaros act as middlemen. Charities or companies working for charities hire them to tow, salvage, and turn over the proceeds of donated vehicles.
But these middleman are not regulated. State Reps. Randy Hultgren and Jim Brosnahan want to change that.
"So I think the state of Illinois has the authority to get involved here and we also have the duty and responsibility to come up with some new rules and regulations to prevent this in the future," Brosnahan said.
"There's ways that we can tighten this up to make sure that this fraudulent activity is stopped," Hultgren said.
Their bipartisan legislation would require middlemen to register with the state and file disclosure statements detailing vehicle prices and how much charities receive. Title fraud involving donated cars also would be a felony.
Several charities no longer work with the Zuccaros, saying there's missing money. The Zuccaros say they are working to resolve that.
(© MMV, CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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