Former Cape Girardeau car salesman charged with felony theft

A former Cape Girardeau car salesman faces felony theft charges for allegedly stealing from dealership customers and lying to them about promotions, according to Cape Girardeau County Prosecuting Attorney Morley Swingle.

Aaron Alfred Evans, 48, of Bertrand, Mo., is charged with three counts of stealing by deceit and is suspected of "using various lies to trick three victims into giving him money," Swingle said.

Auffenburg Chrysler, where Evans worked at the time of the incidents, is blameless in the situation and were the ones to report the thefts to police, Swingle said.

"The scams used by this defendant sounded believable because of all the well-publicized real promotions offered by various car dealers during these uncertain economic times," Swingle said.

The alleged scams involved false claims to customers of Auffenburg that the dealership was conducting a promotional special where they could pay several payments up front, the business would make the remaining payments.

Evans took the money for the supposed payments, but the dealership was not running any such promotion.

Bond was set at $10,000 cash only.