Adam Herrera, a Hesperia, California resident, decided it was time to sell his 2007 Toyota Tacoma pickup. Instead of trading it, he decided to go through with a private sale. He listed his truck for $13,000 on OfferUp and hoped for the best. With the Tacoma being one of the most popular trucks in the US, it didn’t take long for a buyer to express interest.

“[The buyer] wanted to meet. They were very interested. So, they said they would come in from Riverside, and I agreed to meet them there,” Herrera told ABC 7. Herrera met the buyer at an In-N-Out, but he wasn’t alone. He had a toddler, another man, and a pre-teen.

One of the adults asked Herrera to open the hood, and he obliged. Then the other adult asked Herrera a question from the back of the truck. While his eyes were averted, the pre-teen was filmed purposefully altering the engine.

“He opened up the oil-filler cap and he poured the bottle of water in the oil-filler cap then replaced the cap,” recalled Herrera. Of course, he didn’t see it happen. But he knew something was amiss when the buyer asked to go on a test drive.

Suddenly, after decades of reliability and regular service, his Tacoma had mechanical issues.

“We went for a test drive. I drove about a mile down the road and it started smoking. The truck starts smoking,” he said. He quickly parked in the nearest parking lot and inspected the truck from underneath. While the hood was open, one of the men was filmed pouring more water onto and into key components.

“Another video shows one of the men reach into his crotch take out a bottle of water and pour it on the motor and then into the overfill tank,” said Herrera.

The buyer tried going for the jugular

The smoking confused Herrera, as the truck didn’t have any issues until he encountered the family. Then the prospective buyer said since the engine was bad, he’d buy it from him for $5,000. In case you don’t have a calculator handy, that’s an $8,000 difference from the original price.

“I shook my head and I said I am not selling nothing you did something to my vehicle,” continued Herrera. He called the police to track down the scammers and had his truck towed to a dealership. A technician revealed what they’d done, and fixed the truck for $1,500.

That’s when he checked the cameras and saw the proof was in the pudding. He then sent it to the police, who confirmed to the outlet an investigation was underway.

Herrera is happy to have his truck back and running well. But he learned a valuable lesson.

“You got to keep an eye on people like a hawk,” he said.

“You know these guys were expecting me to be someone who needed the money to sell this thing to them for pennies on the dollar and I absolutely knew they did something to my truck.”