Car dealer took elderly consumer for a ride with ‘unscrupulous’ prize promotion, lawsuit says

When Robert Bakken scratched off the final number on a prize ticket he got in the mail and saw that it revealed a match for $10,000, he thought it must be his lucky day.

Now, the 84-year-old military veteran says it was anything but lucky.

He’s suing the car dealership and promotional company that mailed him the prize ticket, saying they used the game to pressure him into buying an overpriced vehicle he can’t afford.

“I wasn’t planning to spend $44,000 on another car,” says Bakken, a retiree who worked in purchasing at a bank and served in the Navy Reserves, including time on active duty.

Bakken, of Saint Anne in Kankakee County, is suing Watseka Chrysler Dodge Jeep Inc., promotional company Dealer Ignite LLC of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and First Financial Bank of Terre Haute, Indiana, claiming fraud, unjust enrichment and violations of state consumer law and the Illinois Prizes and Gifts Act. The bank has filed a cross-claim against the car dealership for breach of contract.

Bakken is represented by the nonprofit Prairie State Legal Services, who filed the lawsuit in Kankakee County Circuit Court.

Bakken says it started with a scratch-off ticket he received in the mail in December.

Excited about winning, he called the phone number on the prize mailer.

“The guy that answered said, ‘Those are good numbers. Come on down,’ ” Bakken says.

When he arrived, a woman at the dealership told him he didn’t actually win $10,000. But she’d like him to stay and chat.

Bakken says his 2011 Chevrolet Traverse, which he drove to the dealership, was a good car that was already paid off.

“They started talking about, ‘You want us to take a look at your car and see if maybe we could make a deal on your car?’” he says. “That’s when I made my biggest mistake, giving them my key. Because I never saw it again.”

What followed was an exhausting daylong odyssey, he says.

The lawsuit claims someone transferred the title of his 2011 Traverse to the dealership without his approval — and that they also went through his glove compartment to find his State Farm car insurance, which they switched to a 2020 GMC Acadia Denali.

“Mr. Bakken had not executed any contracts at this point in time. He had not verbally affirmed that he wanted to purchase the 2020 GMC Acadia Denali,” the lawsuit says.

Finally he was brought to a table and told to sign documents as several men stood nearby “including one who Mr. Bakken estimated to be more than six feet tall and more than 300 pounds. Mr. Bakken felt intimidated and under duress,” the suit says.

The 2020 Denali, which had 61,000 miles on it, was priced at $44,400.

The Kelley Blue Book average price for a 2020 Denali with that mileage in very good condition is $26,456, the lawsuit says.

The payments were $733.61 a month, and when Bakken said he couldn’t afford that, representatives told him they could lower that to about $230 after four months, the lawsuit says. The smaller payments never happened, though.

Bakken returned early the next morning and said he wanted out of the deal.

“They said, ‘You signed it. …You’re an adult,’” he says.

He stayed, hoping someone else would help. At some point, he says, a woman came over and said, “ ‘We got a deal for you. We just did our lotto for this TV and you won.’

“So they gave me a TV,” he says. But they wouldn’t cancel the contract.

Jeff Young, co-owner of the Watseka dealership, said he didn’t want to discuss the lawsuit but says the dealership has a video of Bakken looking happy to win the TV. Young adds, “I think it’s a case of buyer’s remorse.”

Numerous Google reviews have complained about the dealership’s prize promotion, including one consumer who wrote, “I was very desperate for this cash, as we are in hard times. I cried the whole way home.”

Brian Leachman, operations manager for Dealer Ignite, issued a statement denying the allegations.

"However, we are extremely sensitive to this matter due to Mr. Bakken's age and his military service to our country. We do not take that matter lightly. We are working diligently with Mr. Bakken’s attorney and Watseka Chrysler Dodge Jeep to attempt to resolve this issue with a positive outcome for all parties involved. Dealer Ignite did not sell the vehicle, the vehicle was sold by Watseka Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram, and we were there at the dealership to assist with the promotion however possible."

The lawsuit calls the dealership’s and promotional company’s conduct “immoral, unethical, oppressive and unscrupulous” and says it created “substantial emotional distress” for Bakken.

Bakkens’ sales agreement also included a $4,000 service contract and $1,000 in gap coverage, both of which he tried to cancel but hasn't gotten a refund, the lawsuit says.