Scared Monkeys Discussion Forum

We received an email earlier today from an anonymous tipster who claims James (Jim) Sikes, the driver of the runaway Toyota Prius, was in financial trouble and even behind by five months on his payments for the Prius. If that's true, it's potential motivation for wanting to find an out — any out — on paying for the vehicle.

We did some public records searches (thanks to the help of Gawker's John Cook) and found Sikes and his wife Patty found themselves, like many in the California real estate business, on the bursting side of the real estate bubble last year. The two declared bankruptcy in June of 2008 and have a combined liability of over $700,000 dollars in debt.

Among the list of creditors holding secured claims is none other than Toyota Financial Services for a lease on a 2008 Toyota Prius with 7,200 miles on the odometer. Total value of the lease at the time of bankruptcy was $20,494.

UPDATE: We're now hearing rumors that Sikes has a history of items in his possession being stolen and him filing for insurance claims. We found at least one case of this in his bankruptcy documents, which we've included below. We're told we should know more about a second incident shortly.

But there's also another, more salacious tidbit we've found which may or may not be irrelevant — we're still trying to fit this piece into the puzzle. With a tip from a commenter at TTAC, we discovered Sikes owned and operated a web site called AdultSwingLife.com. Interesting. There's also a report from KTLX with a neighbor stating he may have been involved in the porn industry.

The guy that was all over the news because he couldn't get his runaway Prius whoa'd up is a Corvette owner. Which means one of two things: he has never driven his Corvette at 90 mph (doubtful) or he just went brain dead when he lost control of the Prius speed.

Turns out Sikes is a member of a car club that owns the hottest production sports car made in the US: the Corvette Owners Club.

Once Corvette owners get wind of his lack of ability and panic at buzzing down the SoCal freeway at a measly 90 mph with no apparent braking ability, the razzing will be ruthless.

"Now let me get this straight: A Corvette owner...who panics about doing 80 miles an hour on the interstate and later tells a magazine he didn't put the car in neutral because he "thought it would stop too suddenly"?

Even better, his real estate website shows a company car...a PT Cruiser."