FORT WORTH, Texas — A Fort Worth man has threatened to sue a popular car dealership after he dropped off his truck for service only for the vehicle to be involved in a hit-and-run nearly two hours later.
That dealership is David McDavid of Fort Worth. Its owner, Asbury Automotive Group, tells WFAA that an internal investigation has been launched to understand what happened.
It all begins with Jake Holleman, who dropped off his Ford F-150 to the dealership in November of 2018 to get the horn and weather stripping fixed.
"It was still under warranty, so I took it to them, dropped it off, and thought everything was going to be OK," Holleman said. "Well, it was not OK."
Per a dealership invoice, the truck was checked in by a service advisor at 5:41 p.m. on November 27.
A receipt from Enterprise Rent-A-Car shows that Holleman likely dropped the car off a little earlier than that, as he checked out with a rental car paid for by the dealership at 4:58 p.m.
But it's what happened at 7:11 p.m. that day, approximately 30 miles away at a Grand Prairie gas station, that has Holleman lawyering up.
Per a police report, witnesses identified Holleman's truck leaving the scene of an accident via its license plate.
"A red 2017 Ford F-150 reversed, striking a driver's vehicle causing damage to her front driver side fender and driver door," according to the report.
It continues: "The driver of the Ford then drove off. The suspect driving the vehicle is unknown."
The report, however, identifies Holleman as the owner after the truck was identified via its license plate.
Holleman picked up his truck from the dealership weeks later on December the 6th, per his maintenance invoice.
He told WFAA he noticed damage to the front right side of his truck but didn't know where it came from...until he was contacted by an officer with Grand Prairie police.
"I got a call from the department saying they were investigating me for a hit-and-run," Holleman said. "They told me it was a class B misdemeanor and my first reaction was that I live nowhere near Grand Prairie."
"I thought I was going to get handcuffed and taken to jail!"
Holleman was never charged and says he had to explain through receipts that he never had the truck.
He and attorney Mark Alexander sent a demand letter weeks ago to the dealership threatening litigation if the matter can't be resolved outside of court.
"To treat a normal person like this is unconscionable," Alexander said. "I couldn't believe it. They're not supposed to take your car. I mean, that's common sense."
Asbury Auto Group sent WFAA a statement regarding the demand letter:
"We are having ongoing discussions with the customer’s attorneys regarding the claims made, and the matter has yet to be resolved. David McDavid Ford strives to operate at the highest levels of integrity and guest satisfaction, and we look forward to working with the customer to bring this matter to a resolution. At this time, we are not able to comment further since it is an ongoing internal investigation."
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