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Austin Romine, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders heating up

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Good Shepherd choir to sing at St. Martha’s Church

When you write me for help, once I&#8217;ve heard both sides of the story, I normally feel pretty certain about who&#8217;s right and who&#8217;s wrong.But this week is different. Maybe it&#8217;s because the weather is warm, my garden is blooming and I&#8217;m getting soft, but I can&#8217;t make up my mind. So I&#8217;m putting this week&#8217;s case out to a vote. Please use the &#8220;Comments&#8221; section to tell me who&#8217;s done wrong to whom. OK? Here goes:Dan Evans, a 73-year-old disabled veteran who lives in Wilkes-Barre, says in early 2013 he&#8217;d bought a 1997 Cadillac from a guy at the racetrack for $1,500. It was a beautiful-looking Caddy with expensive tires, and Evans had figured he could do a quick resell for $2,500 or $3,000. When he learned it needed shocks and other expensive repairs &#8212; the engine light was on &#8212; he decided to get rid of it. When in September, 2013, he saw an ad from Lokuta&#8217;s Garage of Pittston, offering cash for junk cars, he called and spoke to owner Joseph Lokuta III, who drove over and took a look. After some haggling, they agreed on a price of $1,300.&#8220;He left and came back with his mechanic,&#8221; Evans recalls. &#8220;The mechanic started racing the engine and said he thought there was a leak, but Lokuta said, &#8216;(Expletive) it, I&#8217;ll put in a can of silver sealer.&#8217;&#8221;Lokuta gave Evans a check and drove off in the Caddy.An hour or so later Evans got a call from Lokuta.&#8220;He said the engine blew up, whatever that means,&#8221; says Evans. &#8220;He said they&#8217;d try something else to fix it.&#8221;A few hours later Lokuta called again. The car was no good. He wanted his check back. He said he&#8217;d tow the car back to Evans&#8217; house and return the title.&#8220;I told him I did not want the car back,&#8221; says Evans. &#8220;I sold it for junk, which the ad stated.&#8221;Twelve days later the check bounced. Lokuta had stopped payment. Evans hired a lawyer and took Lokuta to a Luzerne County magistrate and obtained a judgment for $1,419, including interest.Lokuta hasn&#8217;t paid Evans and says he never will.&#8220;I didn&#8217;t think he was going to blatantly lie to me, but he did,&#8221; Lokuta explains. &#8220;I saw some antifreeze residue, and when I asked if there was anything wrong with the heating or cooling system, he said, &#8216;No, everything is perfectly fine.&#8217; Once I drove a mile from his house, all the lights came on and the engine shut down. The car had a bad head gasket, which means a bad motor. A new motor would be a couple thousand and it&#8217;s not worth it.&#8221;&#8220;But you lost the court case,&#8221; I pointed out.&#8220;Because his lawyer knew the judge, and the judge didn&#8217;t want to hear my side of story. He said, &#8216;You buy cars for a living and you should know if it has a bad motor.&#8217;&#8221;&#8220;Shouldn&#8217;t you?&#8221; I asked.&#8220;Well, I wasn&#8217;t wasn&#8217;t buying from a young kid; he was a 70-year-old guy, and I gave him the benefit of the doubt. He knew exactly what he was doing. I gave the guy my trust and he screwed me.&#8221;Lokuta appealed the judgment, and the case has been marked &#8220;inactive.&#8221; My phone calls to the Luzerne County Prothonotary went to an endless cycle of recordings with no option of reaching a human being.Lokuta says he still has the Caddy in his lot.&#8220;Believe me, I buy cars all the time, and I don&#8217;t stop payments on any checks,&#8221; he told me. &#8220;That&#8217;s not how I operate my business; I deal with a lot of people and I don&#8217;t owe money to anybody. He can have the car back if he wants, or I&#8217;ll give him $300 for the car.&#8221;No thanks, says Evans. A deal is a deal.&#8220;It doesn&#8217;t matter what was wrong with the car because it was sold for junk,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Tell him $1,419 and I&#8217;ll be satisfied &#8212; this time a certified check. I don&#8217;t want no bouncers.&#8221;

Consumer Watchdog: Who’s right? Who’s wrong? You make the call