A father and son in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, have been charged with running a chop shop and selling at least 12 stolen cars whose paperwork had been swapped for that of other vehicles, the state's Attorney General announced. Jermaine Quinones Sr., 42, and Jermaine Quinones Jr., 18, face felony counts including theft by deception, washing vehicle titles and insurance fraud.
Investigators traced 12 title-washed sales made during 2025 and 2026, together worth close to $500,000, with many of the transactions allegedly arranged through Facebook Marketplace. Quinones Sr. was arrested at his Allentown home in October with cash bail set at $450,000, and Quinones Jr. was arrested on October 22 with bail set at $100,000.
How the alleged scheme worked
Title washing means selling a stolen or salvaged vehicle using paperwork that belongs to a different car. According to the charging documents, the pair took VINs from various vehicles to disguise cars they knew were stolen, and the counterfeit documents let those cars pass through titling and registration without triggering any alarms.
That is what makes this kind of fraud so hard for a private buyer to spot. Even someone who pays for a VIN history report could reasonably believe they were looking at a legitimate used car, because on paper the identity checks out.
The cars involved were recent models
These were not high-mileage trade-ins. Authorities identified a 2026 Infiniti QX60 valued at $67,599, an Acura Integra worth $35,950, and two Ford Mustangs valued at $32,640 and $31,890. A near-new model year is no protection on its own, since the paperwork, not the condition of the car, is what was falsified.
Charges and possible penalties
Both men face felony charges of theft by deception, washing vehicle titles and insurance fraud. A single conviction for either individual carries a maximum sentence of 20 years.
Whether affected buyers get their money back has not been announced. The sources detail the charges and the bail amounts but say nothing about restitution or a compensation process, so for now the criminal case is the only confirmed outcome.
A familiar pattern in used-car fraud
Facebook Marketplace has a rough reputation among car shoppers, but title washing turns up across the wider used-car trade. Pennsylvania's Attorney General brought a similar case this year against a theft ring accused of targeting 65 luxury and high-end cars using a comparable scheme, and a Utah used-car dealer was accused of forging a dead woman's signature on sales documents to resell hail-damaged vehicles.
The practical takeaway for buyers is unchanged: order a vehicle history report and check that every VIN stamped on the car matches the paperwork, even on a current-model-year vehicle.
