Former salesmen at Huling Bros. Auto Center, one of West Seattle's largest businesses, were charged last week with breaking into a customer's apartment last summer, stealing $70,000 in cash and laundering the money to cover up the crime.

Documents filed by the King County Prosecuting Attorney claim a 60-year-old Delridge man, wearing clothes stained with his own excrement, walked into Huling Bros. dealership last July 21 with $30,000 cash in a plastic bag. Witnesses said the man boasted about having more cash at home.

The man bought a 2006 GMC Canyon pickup truck with the money, most of it in $100 bills.

The next day, the man went back to Huling Bros. saying his new truck was lost and asking the salesman to help him find it.

The salesman and the customer left together t find the pickup, which turned out to be locked in a tow-truck impound lot on Mercer Island.

Word of the disheveled man and his money had gotten around the dealership. While the salesman and his customer were gone to Mercer Island, other Huling Bros. employees are accused of breaking into the customer's apartment and stealing about $70,000 cash, according to court documents.

Charged with burglary, theft and money laundering is Adrian Gregory "A.G." Dillard, 32, of Normandy Park, who recently lived in Wenatchee.

Theodore Ernest "Teddy" Coxwell, 39, is charged with burglary and theft. He most recently had been living in Edmonds.

Paul R. Rimbey, 39, of the Ridgewood neighborhood of West Seattle, was charged with theft.

Eight other Huling Bros. employees were investigated but were not charged.

The victim now resides at Western State Hospital.

The news comes just about two weeks after Steve and Tom Huling sold their business to the Gee family, owners of car dealerships in the Spokane area. None of the next generation of the Huling family is interested in the car business, so the brothers decided to sell the dealership their father and uncle founded in the 1940s.

The Hulings also are selling their Thrifty Car Rental business. They own the largest privately held franchise in the Thrifty company, which is buying back the Huling franchise. The deal is scheduled to be complete Feb. 1, said Steve Huling.

He said he was appalled when Seattle police called about the incident.

"I condemn this. It's horrid," Huling said. "This makes me sick."

Three men facing charges were all short-term employees, Huling said. One of them hired the other two.

"These people were well-paid people," Huling said.

He did not have personal knowledge of how the men got hired in the first place. But he said all new employees must submit to a drug test and agree to sign a business ethics statement which holds employees "personally accountable" for their own misdeeds.

"We do background checks on everybody. I don't care if you're a lot attendant , a technician or a manager," Huling said.

Huling felt a connection to the victim when he learned the man attended Chief Sealth High School at the same time Huling did. He reimbursed the man $30,000 for the pickup truck.

Huling said he won't be hurt if the new owners soon remove the Huling Bros. name from the dealerships. He and his brother Tom wanted the Huling name taken down within 90 days of completion of the business sale anyway. The new owners wanted to keep the Huling name.

"I don't take it personally," Huling said. "This is a business decision."

He's quick to point out the honors Huling Bros. received from car manufacturers as well as the Better Business Bureau. Despite the recent bad publicity, Huling sees a bright future and has faith that justice will prevail.

"I'm not moving away from West Seattle," he said.

UPDATE

Huling family reimburses customer who was cheated

The Huling family, former owners of Huling Bros. Auto Center, gave a check for $70,000 to the King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office to pass along to a Delridge man who bought a pickup truck at the dealership last July.

Steve and Tom Huling recently sold the dealerships to the Gee family of Spokane.

On Jan. 23, the Huling family wrote another check to cover the loss of the money the former employees are accused of stealing from the man.

Tim St. Clair can be reached at tstclair@robinsonnews.com or 932-0300.