This Guy’s Rolls-Royce Was Stolen In Transit, Now He Says It’s Owned By A Mexican Star

Taking delivery of an exotic car should be a once-in-a-lifetime experience, one filled with anticipation, excitement, and maybe a few celebratory photos for social media. But for one Georgia man, that dream quickly turned into a nightmare when his Rolls-Royce Cullinan was stolen before it ever made it to his driveway.

Travis Payne, a general manager at an exotic car dealership, purchased a black 2020 Rolls-Royce Cullinan from a seller in Arizona last summer and arranged for it to be shipped to his home in Atlanta. The plan was simple: the transport company would pick up the car and deliver it within a few days. But when the car never arrived, Payne discovered that the transport company had never even laid hands on it.

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In an interview with the YouTube channel VINwiki, Payne explained that he had fallen victim to a “central dispatch double brokering scam.” Essentially, scammers manipulated the delivery details, rerouting the SUV to a different location in Los Angeles. A separate transport company, completely unaware of the fraud, picked up the Cullinan from the Arizona seller using legitimate-looking paperwork.

Payne tried calling the number associated with the altered delivery address, but no one answered. A neighboring business told him they hadn’t seen his Rolls-Royce but admitted they’d received multiple calls from exotic car owners dealing with eerily similar issues.

After tracking down the transport carrier, Payne discovered who had taken delivery of his car and managed to get a phone number. Hoping to resolve the issue without involving law enforcement, he contacted the person, only to receive an infuriatingly smug reply: “Nice car, mother$&#@.” To make matters worse, the SUV’s GPS tracker had been removed, leaving Payne with no way to locate it.

Social Media to the Rescue

Days passed with no sign of the Rolls-Royce, a less common spec featuring a black exterior and white seats with black inserts and red piping. Then, in a bizarre turn of events, a random social media user spotted what looked like Payne’s Cullinan in a TikTok video. Skeptical but hopeful, Payne compared the starlight roof pattern—a feature unique to every Rolls-Royce—and confirmed that the car in the video was indeed his.

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Tracing the social media post led Payne to a Mexican dealership called Alvarez Exotics, reportedly owned by the family of professional boxer Canelo Álvarez. By the time Payne tracked it down, the Cullinan had been wrapped in white and fitted with different alloy wheels, though the custom interior remained untouched.

A High-Profile Buyer and a Legal Brick Wall

At first, employees at the dealership seemed cooperative. But when Payne requested a diagnostic scan of the SUV, their attitude shifted, and they suddenly became unhelpful. Not long after, the Rolls-Royce was sold to Mexican singer Luis Conriquez, who later posted photos of the interior on his Instagram profile.

According to Payne, the singer has been posting selfies with the professional boxer and his brother who own the dealership. In a last effort to solve the case before going public, Payne contacted their lawyer who refused to cooperate due to lack of proof.

After the story went viral, the current owner of the SUV has been bombarded with comments on his Instagram page, accusing him of flashing a stolen vehicle. The Mexican singer has yet to post an official statement, leaving it unclear whether he was aware of the car’s murky past before purchasing it.

Meanwhile, months after the initial purchase, Payne is still without the Cullinan he paid for, another reminder that in the world of high-end car sales, not every fairytale ends with a happy driveway delivery.