Last year in Houston alone thieves stole about 55 vehicles a day. That’s more than two every hour. It’s why we use car alarms, lock our doors and do our best to protect our property.
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And when you leave your car at a repair shop you expect them to take the same precautions. Investigative reporter Amy Davis is looking into what happens when they don’t and who’s responsible.
Houston police say getting the numbers of how many vehicles are stolen from repair shops or service centers at car dealerships will take some time because the reports aren’t easily searchable by the type of business the vehicle was stolen from. Anecdotally the general manager of one local dealership told me Houston area car dealerships are seeing more of these thefts of customers’ cars.
Woman discovers her SUV is across town when it was supposed to be at repair shop
Evelyn Norsworthy was the first person to notice her Lincoln Aviator was not where she left it five days earlier.
“When I logged into the Lincoln app on Christmas day, December 25th, 2023, and noticed that my vehicle was not at the dealership,” said Norsworthy.
She left it at West Point Lincoln Sugar Land for a recall repair on December 20th. They told her they would need to keep her SUV over the Christmas holiday while they waited on parts.
“I left it with 163 miles in the tank and it was showing 13 miles,” she said.
“Someone had taken it quite a distance,” said Amy Davis.
“Almost 200 miles,” said Norsworthy. “My heart sank initially. And I’m trying to figure out what exactly happened with my vehicle? Is it someone from the dealership in my vehicle? I just didn’t know. I was very scared and nervous because it wasn’t where I left it.”
Using the location service on the app Norsworthy drove to the address 20 miles from the dealership to find her Aviator. It was parked in front of a home with a man inside.
“All of the doors were open. The sunroof was open. The back trunk was open. And there were items piled up in the vehicle. I couldn’t determine what the items were - but you could see a lot of things piled up in the vehicle,” she explains.
Norsworthy called Houston Police who came out and arrested 30-year-old Osman Mohamed.
He told cops he rented the Aviator on Turo. Surveillance images from West Point Lincoln seem to show otherwise. The cameras captured this car registered to Mohamed driving around the dealer’s lot on December 23rd just before closing time.
A man got out of the car, went into the service department and casually took the keys to Norsworthy’s Aviator off of the service desk. He then went back outside and used the key fob to find the SUV.
“The guy was not working alone. There’s no way he was working alone. But I think he was working the strip of dealerships in the area and looking for opportunity,” said Chris Poulos, West Point Lincoln.
KPRC 2 News has reported several incidents where vehicles were stolen while at a car dealership
Chris Poulos owns West Point Lincoln, but it’s happening at dealerships across the city.
We reported another woman’s SUV stolen from Tom Peacock Cadillac where she delivered it for repairs in February.
And last summer video from Doggett Ford on the north freeway shows thieves stealing a customer’s truck waiting on parts.
“I felt like if I was leaving my vehicle with West Point Lincoln Sugar Land, that they would make sure that my vehicle, the keys and my property would be secure,” said Norsworthy.
Is the dealership responsible if something happens to your vehicle while it’s in the shop?
It’s why car owners believe the dealership should replace their vehicles. University of Houston consumer attorney Ryan Marquez explained it in legal terms.
“Anytime you leave your vehicle with anyone like a dealership, it creates a bailment agreement, which that means that they- it’s automatically presumed that they’re negligent and it will be up to them to show that they are not negligent,” he said.
We want to do right by the client, but in the end that’s what insurance is for,” said Poulos.
And that is exactly the sticking point in these issues. The car dealers generally tell the car owners to file the theft claim with their own insurance and you might have to pay a deductible when you did nothing wrong.
In this situation your insurance company may go after the car dealer’s insurance company to cover the cost. That’s called subrogation.
If they don’t do that at the end of the day the customer’s only recourse is to file a lawsuit and that is where Marquez says the customer is likely to win if they can show the dealer was negligent in protecting their property.
Statement from the Houston Auto Dealers Association
“While these occurrences are concerning, it’s important to recognize that theft can happen anywhere, and dealerships are not immune to such incidents. Vehicles are valuable commodities, and unfortunately, they are often targeted. We want to emphasize that these incidents are not a reflection of the dealership’s security measures or integrity but rather a reminder that vigilance is essential in safeguarding assets. We urge all customers and dealership personnel to remain vigilant and implement best practices to minimize the risk of theft.”
Do you have a problem you want Investigator Amy Davis to look into? Email ADavis@kprc.com.