Chief Coast Guard officer sues VW dealership after deputies wrongfully arrest him for driving his own car
On a July afternoon in Tamarac, Florida, a decorated Coast Guard officer found himself in a living nightmare: deputies forcing him from his pickup, handcuffing him at gunpoint, and hauling him off to jail. His “crime”: According to the paperwork, he was driving a stolen truck. According to him, he was driving the vehicle he had just purchased from a local dealership.
The man in the middle of this legal storm is Chief Warrant Officer Shane Sprague, a 27-year Coast Guard veteran who has spent part of his career maintaining Marine One, the presidential helicopter
On July 1, Broward Sheriff’s deputies pulled him over after a LoJack alert flagged his new truck as stolen.
Body camera footage shows Sprague, baffled, repeatedly asking what was happening as he complied with officers.
He later explained that he was locked in a jail cell for four hours, an experience he described as one of the most frightening of his life.
The confusion traces back to Doral Volkswagen, the dealership where Sprague just put down $15,000 on a “Thunderstorm Gray” 2024 GMC Sierra 1500 worth $61,000
GM introduced the new color in 2024.
Sprague’s attorneys claim the dealership mistakenly entered the wrong VIN in its paperwork. This move ultimately reported the truck as stolen. That error triggered the arrest.
Sprague now says the ordeal left him not only embarrassed but also the target of strangers online who believe he is a criminal.
This week, Sprague and his legal team announced a lawsuit against Doral Volkswagen, seeking more than $50,000 in damages
His attorney argued that the dealership showed gross negligence by failing to verify its own records before escalating the matter to police.
In response, Doral Volkswagen’s legal team acknowledged the error, attributing it to human mistake. They emphasized it was an isolated incident and insisted they are working toward a resolution. The dealership filed a motion to move the dispute into arbitration.
For now, Sprague is driving a rental and waiting for the courts to untangle a situation that began with a dream truck and ended with him in handcuffs.
