The owner of New Century Auto in Syracuse, NY, has been charged with unauthorized use of a motor vehicle after a customer’s 2004 Mercury Mountaineer was wrecked. The shop owner had allowed his father to use the vehicle to drive to Utica, NY. The vehicle’s owner told police that she had never given permission for anyone to use her vehicle.
Below is the article as it appeared on the SYRACUSE.COM website.
Troopers: Vehicle in for repairs at auto shop wrecked on Thruway by shop owner’s dad
Robert A. Baker
The Post-Standard
September 21, 2010
Syracuse, NY — When an airbag warning light on the dashboard of Emily Freshour’s 2004 Mercury Mountaineer wouldn’t go out, she brought the vehicle to a Syracuse auto shop in August to have it fixed.
Imagine her surprise when an employee of New Century Auto, 950 W. Genesee St., called to tell her that her Mountaineer was demolished in a Thruway crash more than 20 miles away. The driver at the time of the crash was the father of the repair shop’s owner, state police said.
New Century Auto owner Zhixiong Dong, 32, of 1901 W. Genesee St., was charged Tuesday by state police with unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, a misdemeanor.
Dong, troopers said, allowed his father to take Freshour’s vehicle for an Aug. 26 trip to Utica. The vehicle crashed on the Thruway in the Madison County town of Lenox. Freshour told troopers she never gave permission for anyone to use her vehicle for a trip.
To read the entire article, visit the SYRACUSE.COM website at http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2010/09/troopers_vehicle_in_for_repair.html.
