Auto Body Shop Disappeared, Owner Accused of Taking Customers' Money
May 20, 2022—Several months back, Auto Innovations auto body shop in Marietta, Georgia abruptly disappeared from its location. The building was painted, and more importantly all of the vehicles that the shop had been working on were gone. But that was only the tip of the iceberg.
According to Fox 5 Atlanta, the Auto Innovations website explains they had to move quickly due to the sale of their former building going though faster than expected. It is unclear as to where the shop exactly moved to, seeing as the shop's website also says that their new facility was not done soon enough for them to adequately transfer everything over. They were keeping the vehicles in what they called "partner facilities".
Even still, many customers say they did not know that the move was even happening. This led to police reports being filed over stolen vehicles. Brittany Pedigo was one such customer who filed a report because she drove by the location that she had dropped her truck off at only to discover, to her shock, that it was unrecognizable and the vehicles were gone. She had no idea where her truck was.
This is where the story gets even more convoluted. Pedigo was able to eventually locate her truck, but no work had been done on it. She also discovered that an insurance check totaled at $3,707.77 made out to the truck owner had been cashed by Auto Innovations just a day after she had dropped the truck off. Pedigo had been storing the check in the center console of her truck.
Pedigo filed a theft report and took Auto Innovations owner Shelley Jackson to court over this recently. In court, Jackson claimed that the check was on its way to Pedigo, but Pedigo said that Jackson had been saying that since March.
The Judge sided with Pedigo.
"Apparently that check, from what your testimony is, you left in your vehicle. It was made out to you personally. And it was obviously taken out of your vehicle and deposited into the Auto Innovations account based on these text messages that I’ve seen. It has not been returned to your insurance company," Judge Amanda Perez of Cobb County Magistrate Court said, according to the article.
Shelley Jackson reportedly turned herself in to authorities later that day.
