A Rhode Island Mayor is facing a lawsuit that alleges he got into a 1975 MGB and drove away without paying for it back in 2021. It’s a dizzying he-said-he-said case, and neither party comes off as particularly the good guy here.
Davide C. Broccoli of Providence, Rhode Island told his side of things to the Providence Journal, while Kenneth J. Hopkins, the Mayor of Cranston, Rhode Island gave the Boston Globe his side of things. Both men agree that in 2021, they met at a property Broccoli owned where he stored multiple classic cars behind a chain-link fence. Hopkins was interested in a 1975 MGB Anniversary Edition because the badge bore the initials of his recently deceased wife — MG. Broccoli says Hopkins then hopped into the car and drove away, from the Journal:
“He didn’t mention anything about buying it, just wanted to come,” Broccoli claimed, adding that the car wouldn’t start because it had been sitting for months, so they jumped the battery using the mayor’s city vehicle.
“He got in it, went in forward and reverse and said ‘I’m taking it.’” Broccoli recalled. “’What do you mean you’re taking it?’ I said. How are you going to take it: there’s no plate, you don’t even know if the thing is roadworthy.”
“‘I’m the mayor I can do what I want,” Broccoli continued. “That’s what he said. I was speechless.”
While this would be a very cool thing to say as a mayor, one has to question if this is really how the interaction went down. It seems a bit childish? Here’s what Hopkins says happened:
“I happened to drive by and spotted it,” he said. “I didn’t know who owned it. When I found out, I asked if (Broccoli) was interested in selling it. He said ‘Yes, I will meet you over there.’ He gave me the keys and said ‘Take it way.’ ”
Hopkins said he offered Broccoli $1,200 for the car, which he said was in poor condition. But he said Broccoli never provided ownership paperwork and a signed bill of sale despite repeated requests. He said he suspects that Broccoli refused to provide that paperwork because he wanted “special treatment on the payment of delinquent taxes.”
“I don’t play those games,” the mayor said.
Hopkins said he had the car repainted and installed new leather seats, and he even had it insured because he was keeping it in his garage.
“My attorney said that once you got the keys and drove it away, you were in a verbal agreement to purchase the car,” Hopkins said. “It’s not like I went over and stole the car.”
OK, gonna have to disagree with you there, mayor. If you’re driving around in a car with no bill of sale, no registration in your name and the original owner wants it back (he does), that is exactly like stealing it.
Hopkins says he’s been trying to pay Broccoli for the car in order to complete the registration, but also told reporters he can’t remember what the apparently agreed to sale price was three years ago. Hopkins then said the MGB was a piece of junk when he saw it, but piece-of-junk MGBs don’t just drive off of open storage lots like that, even after you jump them. Broccoli says Hopkins drove it unregistered on his Mayor’s plates. Seems likely, though the MGB is now sitting in Hopkins’ garage, fully insured according to Hopkins.
Broccoli also alleges systematic harassment from the mayor’s office over the title and registration, as well as efforts from the city to harass him over various properties he owns. The classic car lot the MGB came from was cleared out by a city tow truck two months ago. Broccoli also contends the city damaged an empty brick building he owns to the tune of $75,000 by removing a 60-year-old sign. Hmm, this guy sure has a lot of properties not doing much of anything. Hopkins’ campaign pointed out Broccoli has been in trouble with safety inspectors several times over derelict properties and unpaid taxes.
His lawsuit demands the return of the car and $15,000 “for the conversion of the plaintiff’s property” after Hopkins gave the MG a new coat of paint and installed two new leather seats. Hopkins says this lawsuit, coming just days before the Republican primary, is politically motivated, but Broccoli says he just wants this drama resolved.
“I didn’t want to be that guy, but I had to protect my interests somehow,” Broccoli said in a wide-ranging interview with The Hummel Report on Friday afternoon, explaining why he filed a lawsuit. “I’m at the point, I don’t know what to do.”
The squabbles of two boomers doesn’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world, but I feel bad for the real victim here; that MGB, sitting unregistered and undrivable in some politician’s garage. Won’t someone please think of the roadsters?