In their award-winning film “Fargo”, Joel and Ethan Coen start out showing a small time car dealer facing financial problems. William H. Macy has been selling cars for cash and keeping his antics from the auto finance firm.

After leading global communications at Ford Credit for five years it rang true. Dealers borrow from manufacturers to finance their showroom inventory of cars. Whenever one’s sold the loan is repaid and the financial responsibility is transferred to the new owner. Congratulations! You bought a car loan!

But William Macy found it hard to hide from the car company. How do you hide a stolen car other than sending it to a chop chop for parts? Macy’s problem was he didn’t try hard enough. His scale was wrong. One car? Think big! In Nebraska they did just that. Employees emptied the car lot then emptied their desks. Sadly this wasn’t a “made for Hollywood” ending. They were all caught a few days later. It was hard to hide 81 stolen vehicles.

Can you see Nicolas Cage playing a Nebraska auto dealer? Hmmm…..I can!