How can some people LIE so blatantly and think you are dumb enough to believe?

[Qanisqineq]

Long story short (well, maybe not so short):

TWO AND A HALF years ago I sold someone my car. It was my next-door neighbor and his wife. They said they couldn't afford to pay it all at once but would set up allotments from his pay to be sent to my account (he and my husband are both military). I was hesitant but said ok (STUPID!). We even went to the legal office and had a contract written up saying he would have it paid off by June 2006, etc.

The next day his wife takes the car to the mechanic and comes back with some hand-written note on a piece of scrap paper listing all these things wrong with it and the cost. They want me to pay. FIRST OF ALL, they told me they had taken it to a mechanic prior to buying it... they had it for 7 HOURS the day before they bought it and told me that was why they had it so long. I told them no, sold as is. You had your chance to go to the mechanic. I called the place they took it to (out of curiosity) and the mechanic said he suggested a couple things for routine maintenance but not $700 worth!

So they move away a week later (after numerous lies that don't have to do with the car but that's another story), then call me and tell me they had to abandon the car and we should just forget the whole thing. WHAT???? Are you nuts? I don't know that you've abandoned the car and why would you? And it's not my problem if you did.

A month later they call and say it needs work, it was leaking green fluid -- while letting it run with the A/C on in over 100 degree temperatures while it just sat there. First of all, I thought it was abandoned? Next, not my fault!

About 6 months go by, I move to Korea, still getting the allotment, all seems good. Suddenly the money stops. I call and call and call. The date it should be paid off goes by. No word. Finally get a hold of him months later and he says "my wife divorced me, she stopped the allotment, I didn't know." Starts up again.

Then it stops again 8 months or so later. No word from him. We call and call and email and finally end up calling his chain of command. He says he'll send the rest in a money order. Never arrives. 4 months go by and we can't get a hold of him.

Which brings us to now. Finally get email from his wife: "he has been in the hospital for the LAST YEAR with internal bleeding." No, 4 months ago he was AT WORK. What about this divorce? Oh, they remarried. Riiiight. So go get a money order lady! But she won't. Says her husband can't jump out of a hospital bed and worry about our problems. Oh, and ends with "GOD BLESS YOU AND HAVE A WONDERFUL DAY!!" (her emphasis, not mine).

What the hell do I do now? What do I even believe?