UPDATE 12/23/16 – We helped Patricia Graves get back her car, but there’s no engine in it now, so she can’t drive it.
Friday, the In Your Corner team delivered a generous gift of $1,700 to Patricia from a kind stranger wishing to remain anonymous.
“I can’t believe it,” Patricia said. “Oh, this is just wonderful and you thank them.”
The check is for the exact amount shop owner, Steve Burnett, took from Patricia.
Remember Burnett had her car for almost five months and returned it with parts missing.
More customers are still reeling and heartbroken.
Burnett left Sharon Hylton’s vintage ford pick-up in pieces.
“Well, it was my grandfather’s,” she said. “It was just a dream of mine to have something of his.”
Sharon remembers riding shotgun in it with her grandfather and listening to his stories about living a good life.
“He was a gray haired Christian man, wore starch shirts with overalls, wore old spice cologne, a gentle person,” she said. “He used this truck to round up his cows.”
She says Burnett snatched her dream and her $10,000.
The shop owner gave us his word he plans to satisfy refunds once he sells off his equipment.
The thing is he says he’s broke, so there’s no guarantee he’ll actually come through.
Lucky for Patricia she was blessed to be on the receiving end of an act of charity with no name.
“I thank him for the bottom of my heart,” she said. “I didn’t know what I was going to do.”
OKLAHOMA CITY – Patricia Grave’s Chrysler 300 is missing.
Last check, it was still there with shop owner, Steve Burnett.
He’s had her car at Intuitive Kustom Automotive Services for almost five months.
“This was the agreement,” Patricia said. “We did put the $1,700 down.”
Now, it seems Burnett’s shop has gone out of business, leaving customers devastated during the holidays.
“The $1,700 I put down I borrowed, but I have to pay it back and it’s hard,” Patricia said. “I was hoping to get the car back.”
Sharon Hylton said she’s out $10,000 and heartbroken.
Burnett had her grandfather’s vintage ford pick-up for a year and half.
Now, it’s in a million pieces.
“I have no money left,” Sharon said.
Burnett agreed to meet us at his shop to show us Patricia’s car, except there’s no engine.
He told us her engine was traded for another motor and that motor was junk.
Now, Burnett is flat-out broke and has no money to replace it.
He said he plans to liquidate his equipment to satisfy customers and refunds.
We asked him what happened to their money.
“We spent [it] on salaries, guys working on the vehicle, parts for the vehicle,” Burnett said.
As soon as Sharon found out the shop was shutting down, she scrambled to have her grandpa’s pick-up towed to her house.
Thursday evening, the shop owner followed through on his promise to tow Patricia’s car to her son’s house.
So, while both families have their vehicle back, they don’t run.
Burnett said he’ll start paying them back just as soon as he sells off his equipment, but that could take weeks, maybe months.
We’ll keep you posted.
