"I'm a fucking idiot, what do I do now?", he said to his wife.

Yeah, I had the mindset that the car didn't really have enough miles to have any major problems. In my brain I had "The car looks good, this is the first decent deal you have seen the whole time, you really need a car like yesterday, you always get so nervous with big decisions and it always works out, just do it...", dumb again, I've just never been screwed with cars in any way shape or form, and I was in a hurry. Lessons learned.

As far as my brother in law, he's effectively as useless as any other police officer in my experience. I've talked with him about this twice, and both times he has seemed so disinterested and uncaring it's been really frustrating. I looked over my shoulder at one point because I thought there must be a tv on behind me or something. His defense is either that he doesn't really know what to tell me, or that him doing or saying anything (including even giving me advice really) could cost him his job. Now, this is a guy who will pull rank and yell at people in a super market, he can go into cop mode in a tenth of a second, but apparently not for anything that doesn't directly effect him. It's just been one more disappointing aspect of this. I was just telling my wife Friday night that I was so annoyed about it, they could expect me to quote a fee the next time they need some computer help. Super frustrating to give away shit tons of my time because of what I know due to someone being family, and feel hung out to dry when I could use some of their knowledge. Another lesson learned.

The whole situation was stupid. My wife, and the friend I brought with me, both feel awful for their contributions as well. Ultimately it was my decision, and I haven't tried to push any blame on them, but they both know that I was very hesitant about the whole thing, and they both pushed for me to do it. Well, technically my wife was just like "The car sounds good and runs good, do whatever you want", but she was excited as she has been trying to get me to replace my current beater for like 2 years. My friend on the other hand wasn't worried at all, he was 100% gung hoe about the whole thing. Even now he's like "Why not just drive up and see if they will meet you at a Chili's or something so you guys can work it out? They can't be that bad." He's just totally living on another planet, and I didn't realize, as again, he's an intelligent guy, but is apparently just lacking any form of common sense at all. So many lessons learned.

I'm not shifting the blame to them, just saying, had I been alone would I have walked away? Yeah probably. Had ANYONE with a negative view been with me? Yeah again. It was just kind of a perfect storm of me being frustrated and rushed, while cheerleaders encouraged me, and I wrote my own concerns and instincts off as being too paranoid. Again, what can I do now but pursue legal action.

The meeting with the lawyer is at 6. I'm going to explain the whole thing and suggest the "threat of legal action" letter, but we'll see what he says. I'll update this after I know exactly whats going on.

So, nothing super exciting tonight. The guy asked me why I didn't just give them the plates, and I said they were just the only thing I had that they wanted, so I thought they would be motivation to make sure I got the title. He told me that if they are going to rip me off the plates really don't matter, and all I'm doing by not giving up the plates is making stupid people even more unreasonable. Told me this - Go get the plates, and then "forget" where I parked the car if anyone asks. Call up TitleMax in the morning and ask if they would give the owner the plates if she came in, and ask her to sign the title, if I sent them the plates. Assuming they say yes, overnight the plates to titlemax and text the girl something simple like "Sorry for the inconvenience, TitleMax will have your plates tomorrow, would appreciate it if you could sign the title while you are there picking them up, thanks." and leave it at that. Don't get into any arguing or anything with the people.

Give them a couple days to go get the plates. Now, there is a 10 or 20% chance they sign the title, and we all move on. Chances are that they will just go in and demand the plates and title, and strongarm the people at TitleMax into giving in. At that point, hire an attorney. At that point I will have done everything possible to correct the situation, while they would have proven to be unreasonable and in the wrong.

Even then, he said I would probably want to get an attorney in Vegas, but we could revisit that later in the week. To call him either when something happens, or on Friday if they just drop off the face of the earth. So yeah, slim to none chance it gets worked out without legal action, but he says try that first, I really have nothing to lose by sending them the plates. I either have a car I don't own with plates, or without, so why not try appeasing them.

So, not what I was expecting, but he didn't charge me, so there's that. So, thats that. Blerg.