On or about 8/18/2025 Bloomington police took a report of a theft by swindle case and odometer tampering case. C. P., Victim herein, stated that sometime near the beginning of June 2025, she purchased a vehicle at [ADDRESS REDACTED] South in Bloomington, Hennepin County. She purchased the vehicle from a person later identified as Christian Ricardo Ochoteco-Linares [DOB REDACTED], Defendant herein. She located the vehicle on Facebook Marketplace. The vehicle purchased was a white 2015 Focus. Victim provided the VIN to law enforcement and law enforcement confirmed that the VIN of the vehicle was correct but registered to a A. N. S. And is flagged sold to T. A. T. Defendant told Victim the title for the vehicle was in his wife’s name.
Victim purchased the vehicle for $4700. The deal was done in the underground garage of 8200 Humboldt. The odometer was at about 103,000. After leaving, the transmission immediately broke down. The vehicle was fixed for $3,500. Victim attempted to transfer the title to a DVS. When filling out the paperwork, the DVS employee flagged the fact that the odometer now read 103,000 miles, when the last title transfer read 172,000 miles. Victim talked to A. N. S., who stated that she sold the vehicle to T. A. T. Victim was then able to speak to T. A. T. Who stated she sold the vehicle to Defendant and took a picture of his ID at the time.
At that time, the vehicle had approximately 213,000 miles on it. Victim provided Carfax reports for the vehicle showing approximately 211,000 miles on the vehicle. The title Defendant gave to Victim has the mileage erased or washed out. It clearly looks altered on the picture of the title that Victim [NAME REDACTED]. It appears also that the title was the exact same title that Defendant received previously when he bought the car and then turned around and used this same title to sell the car to Victim.
Defendant has an address at [ADDRESS REDACTED] South in Bloomington. In summary thus far, Defendant bought the car and he received a title. The title had the listed mileage printed at last transfer 172,406, also confirmed in DVS, they also had a picture of the vehicle’s odometer - 213,473. Victim [NAME REDACTED] is the same title given to Defendant by the previous owners and now has the odometer mileage removed. As police investigated the situation, police learned that on 6/17/25 A. N. S. Sold the vehicle to T. A. T. Then, T. A. T. Sold the vehicle to Defendant on 7/9/25. On 7/13/25, Defendant sold the vehicle to Victim.
Victim provided Facebook messages between her and Defendant where he stated he was aware of the transmission issue and he and his wife are the only people who looked at the vehicle and it had been sitting for a month. When the vehicle was sold to Victim, the odometer read 103,368 miles on it. With this information, police arrested Defendant on April 11, 2026, and took a post-Miranda statement from him. Defendant stated he is a mechanic and previously working for Tic Tac Toe company. He stated he bought the car for a good price because it was was damaged and he thought he could fix it.
