After getting into a crash in July, a Toledo woman is still trying to get her money or car back from the auto shop it was taken to.
TOLEDO, Ohio — The work-from-home life is great for some. But for Brianna Saldivar, not so much.
“When I started working from home, I couldn’t do what I normally do so it cut my check in half,” said Saldivar.
She said she works at a company that thankfully lets her work from home but would go to work if she had a car to get there.
“I was on my way home, I got in an accident and it was completely my fault,” said Saldivar.
Her car was taken to 5 G’s Auto Recycling in Toledo where Dennis Futrel is listed as one of the owners.
“I’ll take care of this for you and you’ll have your car back in three days. I already got it taken apart,” Saldivar said Futrel told her.
Sounds great, except this was in July and the car is still there.
Not only does Futrel have her car, but he also has her insurance money. Two checks were written to 5 G’s Auto Recycling, one for $4,281.75 and another for $1,233.76.
“The insurance company asked, ‘Do you want it sent to you or directly to the shop?'” said Saldivar. “She said, ‘I legally can’t advise you anything but if you want it done faster, I would send it over to them.'”
She did, and all Brianna has gotten since is a list of reasons why her car isn’t done.
Brianna said through the months Futrel told her he was in the hospital, he was waiting for parts, he slipped and fell at Walmart, he got a new phone, and many other reasons.
Her insurance said it’s a civil matter and they can’t step in.
We reached out to her insurance company, Direct Auto Insurance, to see if there was anything they could do and was left with no response.
“We’ve showed up with the police and they say he’s not here,” Saldivar said.
But when 11 Investigates showed up last Tuesday, he was.
He gave a few reasons why the job wasn’t done yet, including that Brianna didn’t have deductible money for him, yet has almost $6,000 in insurance money.
Long story short, Dennis promised our team to have the car done on Tuesday, Jan. 30.
Tuesday came and went and again, the car was not ready.
“This has been like one of the most horrendous things I have ever dealt with,” Saldivar said.
Saldivar said she has gone to Futrel for other work and has had no problem, but this time is very different.
Futrel told 11 Investigates that the car would be done on Feb. 1, but after a call Wednesday afternoon, it sounds like that isn’t going to happen.
Based in New York, Stephen Freeman is a Senior Editor at Trending Insurance News. Previously he has worked for Forbes and The Huffington Post. Steven is a graduate of Risk Management at the University of New York.