By CRM staff
Toronto, Ontario – April 17, 2019 – From a man pouring gasoline on vehicles to a car crashing through a Nova Scotia family’s dream home, vehicles have had a rough–and ridiculous–week! Here is Collision Repair’s weekly round-up of the craziest collision-related headlines from the past seven days.
“Hawaiian Shirt Guy” Is A Hero
Several videos captured a man in dark clothing dousing the sidewalk and nearby cars parked on the side of the street in gasoline. Many of the cars were engulfed in flames. With so many witnesses around, the man just walked away, raising the can of gasoline in his hand and then dropping his backpack. But one man dressed in a Hawaiian shirt, who is now seen as a hero, would not let this guy just walk away like that. The man in the Hawaiian shirt ran after him into a Starbucks coffee shop and knocked him to the ground before police arrived on the scene.
Car-Sharing Crime Spree
As of Wednesday afternoon, more than 100 luxury vehicles including 50 Mercedes-Benz were reportedly stolen from a car-sharing app. Chicago police said in a statement that the car sharing company car2go or SHARE NOW had told authorities that its vehicles may be taken through deceptive practices through the companies app. According to CBS News, many of the vehicles that were stolen were being used to commit other crimes. Car2go posted “We were not hacked. This is an instance of fraud, isolated to Chicago, and we are currently working with law enforcement. None of our member’s personal or confidential information has been compromised. No other SHARE NOW North American market has been affected.” As of now, about 16 people have been brought in for questioning.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/skbaer/chicago-rental-car-company-fraud
Crashing Dreams
A family in Nova Scotia is shaken up after a vehicle crashed into the side of their dream home. While waking up one morning, Tonya Ward had heard a loud boom from the side of her house, thinking it was an earthquake. The family later found out that the car had driven off the road, flipped in the air, hit a tree and then crashed into Ward’s grandmothers’ room, trapping her inside. The house had been in Ward’s family for more than 50 years and it was Ward’s “childhood dream” to own the property.
https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/car-crashes-into-nova-scotia-woman-s-dream-home-1.4378988
A True Story
The FBI is investigating a salesman at a Tennessee Chevrolet dealership for kidnapping a disabled customer and stealing $200,000 from him. As some have speculated this story seems like it came straight out of a movie, but in fact, it is real. The man has yet to have been caught, but he did lose his job at the dealership. The salesman reportedly held a customer captive and made him take out thousands of dollars. The customer had suffered from an accident recently that left him with an amputated leg and paralyzed on one side. In return, he was given a settlement package. It all started when he brought his recently purchased truck into the dealership, and the salesman offered to drive him home. Except when he drove him home, he stopped at a number of banks where the customer was forced to withdraw a total of $200,000. Just when you think that’s it, it’s not. The salesman then forced the customer to smoke crack.
