On Sunday, November 3, my son dropped his car off at a local auto body shop to have his rear bumper and left rear taillight lense repair after he had backed into a truck in the neighborhood. we picked up his car on the evening of Wednesday, November 6th, about 5:30 pm after work. Today in the mail he gets a overdue ticket notice from the city of Milwaukee, and it shows the ticket was written on Wednesday, November 6th, at 8:35 AM. in the morning. #1 - it is in a neighborhood in Milwaukee that is not the most desirable to say the least (all residential) #2 - He was at work that morning (he was using my jeep while his car was being repaired) It looks like someone, took his car, unauthorized, from the body shop, and drove it to this area, for whatever reason. A friend of my wife, an ex Milwaukee Police officer, said she would defintitely classify this as a stolen auto case. We are going to confront the owner of the auto body shop on Monday and see what he says. This was a shop that the insurance company recommended. My son, to say the least is a little PO'd, because who knows what went down when they used the car....drugs, illegal activities, etc. etc. The car is a 2006 Acura RSX, Type S, which would be considered a very desirable car in the neighborhood that the ticket was written in. We are also wondering if he should get the key changed because of this ? I know it's an electronic key fob, so I don't know how hard it is to make a duplicate. Anybody have any suggestions ? My son is thinking about getting an attorney on this. I know he says that if the person who took the car is an employee of the body shop, he wants this guys butt fired on the spot !~!
I would for sure talk to the officer who wrote the ticket and get some legal advice. Looks like someone decided to use the car for something other then get fixed.
I would call the cops before the owner of the auto body place just because the cops will blind side him and he won't have time to react. Better yet call contact 6 this is right up there ally but don't give the owner a clue it's coming, he might have been the one on the drug run.
Here in Virginia there are two types of charges that apply to a stolen vehicle: 1) Grand Larceny--the outright theft of the vehicle 2) The Unauthorized Use of a Motor Vehicle--in a nutshell--you authorize someone to drive your car in prescribed manner (ie, letting an autobody shop drive your car around their shop, etc.). However, you did not give them any authorization to joy ride in your car. Here is the good thing---regardless of 1 or 2, they are both felonies. So here is what I would do. 1) Contact the police and tell them you want to press charges for the unauthorized use of the vehicle and the cost of the ticket. DO NOT contact the shop owner/manager or risk them destroying any video evidence, or any other sort of evidence prior to the arrival of the police.
Also, how far away from the autobody shop was the ticket written? What time does the autobody shop normally open in the morning? Are there any autobody parts stores near where the ticket was written?
Also, how far away from the autobody shop was the ticket written? About 20 miles, they had to get all of the parts directly from Acura, which the only Acura dealer is on the opposite side of town. What time does the autobody shop normally open in the morning? Their hours are 6:30 am to 5:30 pm Are there any autobody parts stores near where the ticket was written? Like I mentioned before, this is basically a residential neighborhood, we googled he picture of the address and their are no businesses at all.
My guess is someone used your son's car to go get the parts for his vehicle. That is still unacceptable.
Go to the police. They have NO right to take your car to pick up parts anyways. That is what parts trucks are for the those shops have, or they have them delivered. Do not take this as an excuse.
Sounds like Unauthorized Use. Listen to Brett! File your report BEFORE confronting the shop owner. If you haven't already, I'd do that right now. From that point, let the investigators handle it. Was this a parking citation? Moving violation?
Here,parking tickets go against the car and moving violations go against the driver.so you must have a parking ticket or you would have a name to go with it. My guess is the shop owner or manager would take care of it....or someone stole your car and was kind enough to bring it back. In that case you got lucky.
I hate to say it, but depending on the cost of the ticket...I would just pay it and forgo the aggravation. After that I would take the recipes and ticket to the shop and talk to the owner and see if rectifies the issue. The hassle of police reports/ charges ect wouldn't be worth my time.
Here is another part of this we are not thinking about.....I bet the guy ragged the heck out of the car. I bet the shop uses their customers cars all the time to pick up parts and DOES NOT reimburse them for gas money and anything else associated. For all we know the guy that used the car ran the car 100mph, downshifted hard, slammed on the brakes, hit a curb.....basically f'ed the car up. I for one say press charges. That behavior is unacceptable.
That's a lot to assume from a parking ticket, and a lot prove also....guess you guys have more time on your hands then I am used to.
I never said anything about proving anything. My point is this.....if this happened to this guy, it is happening unbeknownst to a lot of other people. Guaranteed these guys are ragging out the cars they are driving to pick up parts. That is just another reason why I would pursue unauthorized use charges.
I would DEFINITELY pursue charges and at least make the shop pay the ticket. This is exactly why I usually do my own work but if I HAVE to take my truck in, I make sure to write down the mileage when I drop it off and make sure the service guy KNOWS I wrote it down and check it first thing when I get it back! Just can't trust anybody!
I don't understand exactly what other facts are needed. The guys kid dropped the car off on Nov 3 for work. He picked it up the evening of the 6th. Then receives an overdue ticket notice in the mail for a ticket written on the morning of the 6th before he picked up his car. The place doing the work was responsible for the car until it was picked up by the owner. What else do you really need to know?
