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You wouldn’t think this needs to be said, but if your job is to tow a car to a repair shop, that doesn’t mean you get to take the car to your house and drive it like a maniac. The same way the pizza delivery guy doesn’t help himself to a slice or two of your pizza. Someone may need to explain that to the guy who towed Brian Montgomery’s Nissan GT-R.
The sordid story comes to us from TV station ABC 13 in Houston. Montgomery, who lives in nearby Pearland, is a man who loves his Nissan GT-R. He who uses a wheelchair as a result of a motorcycle crash, but still lives for fast cars, which makes his choice of car pretty obvious.
ABC 13 reports that last week, Montgomery noticed that his GT-R’s transmission warning light had come on. He arranged to have the car towed to the Nissan dealership in Pearland, TX on Sunday, but the car didn’t actually get there until Monday afternoon.
The reason for the delay you can see in the dash cam clip in the video above: the tow truck driver, instead of taking the car right to the dealership, took the car to his own house, where he drove the car around his residential neighborhood, apparently reaching speeds up to 75 mph and spinning the tires.
Oh, the videos also show the tow truck driver took his friends for rides in the car, during which he offered some insightful takes on its driving dynamics, including bon mots like:
“**** yeah, ***** is quick as ****, bro!
and:***** sucks me back in the seat!
We should hire this gifted wordsmith.
In this video, the tow truck driver and his giggling friends assess (at about 3:35) the special hand controls that Montgomery needs to use to drive, saying
That ****’s in the way of my legs! Man, **** this piece of ****.
Then they speculate about how the GT-R compares to “the Integra.”
If there’s any benefit of the doubt to be given that maybe this guy was driving this effectively stolen car in any responsible manner or was in any way confused as to who owned it, we can put that **** to rest in this video clip here:
... to which our tow truck pilot responds:Hell no. I almost lost control of it right now. ***** is fast.
Montgomery discovered the car’s secret unwanted adventure when the car was returned to him on Tuesday. He noticed that his sunglasses were missing, and his dash cam was unplugged, so he checked the footage stored on the camera and found this very unbelievable manner of ****.
He posted the video clips on the GTRLife forum, along with this explanation:Just putting these guys on blast for what they did to me.
I called Nissan Roadside assistance and they sent these guys out. They picked up my car because the transmission had an error code that self cleared but I wanted to make sure it was going to be fine.
Anyways. the guy takes my car to his house, unloads it, blast it down the road around the block, calls his buddies and then they all get a turn to drive it. Meanwhile my dashcam rolls it. Then at 2am, the tow truck driver takes my car out and notices the dashcam and unplugs the power to it. So I have no idea what he went to do in my car. Meanwhile one of the guys stole my Oakleys and my gopro cigarette charger and you can hear the guy tell him not to go through my stuff but the guy does it anyways and allows him. Police reports have already taken place. Brazoria county DA has accepted the charges for unauthorized use of a motor vehicle and burglary of a motor vehicle.
Aside from the obvious theft of the car, theft of Montgomery’s property, and general pervasive idiocy, it’s worth remembering that Montgomery wanted his car taken into the shop for a reason.
There was that transmission warning light, and, while I’m not a Nissan tech, I suspect the procedure for diagnosing potential transmission issues isn’t to fill the car up with around 400 pounds of moron and tear *** with it all over public roads.
There is a weird noise that starts to happen in this video. I’m not sure if it’s got anything to do with the car’s issues or what, but it doesn’t sound great, whatever it is.
This is one of the most egregious abuses of a customer’s car I’ve ever seen. This wasn’t some quick little joyride to get a little taste of what a car is like; the tow truck driver literally stole this car for over a full day, hooned the **** out of it, let his friends rummage through it, drive it, and, perhaps most maddeningly, posed with the car for pictures and Snapchat posts.
dont trust anyone with your car, for me, even when I drop my car to the dealership, I took picture of the odometer and video a short clip of walk around just in case something happen that I can have proof.
The main issue, though, underlying the article (and probably the reason the transmission warning light came on in the first place) is that early-model GT-Rs had serious issues with their transmissions...to the point, I think, where Nssan even extended the warranty.
I'd fire him, but reduce the charges to reckless driving with a good long probation and conditional driver license.
The car can be replaced. We don't need petty thieves (property crimes) in jail being unproductive to society when there are people out there committing *violent* crimes against people.
I'd sue the company immediately. Hope this scumbag loses his job and goes to prison. Good lord. I get mad when people excessively touch buttons in my car let alone taking it and driving it hard. I'm too overprotective over my car but seriously.. this is just sick.
Hopefully the GT-R owner gets the company to pay for ANY damage to the car and maybe even whatever was wrong with it before it was stolen.
We don't need petty thieves (property crimes) in jail
I'll respect your opinion here, but disagree. 70-75 MPH on residential side streets, IMO, where many kids and pets play, is clearly grounds for some time in an orange jump-suit. Many communities have been forced to add speed bumps by this sort of nonsense behind the wheel....even though speed bumps are a PITA, even for those driving at legal speeds.
In my state of VA, most residential side streets have a posted 25 MPH, and anything more than 20 MPH above the posted limits, anywhere in the state, is an automatic Reckless Driving charge. Can't depend on your radar detector, either....their use is illegal in the state, and can be impounded.
I did say he should be charged with reckless, but that the UUMV charge should be commuted to something that isn't a state jail felony. A class A misdemeanor for 364 days in jail should be the max.
It's a property crime with the reckless driving as a moving component. A conditional license, ankle bracelet, fines and long probation (5yrs) is most appropriate in this case as there were no injuries nor was violence used or implied in the act.
Because the owner of the car totally asked for this to happen, right? He trusted these guys with a very expensive car and an employee inconsiderately took it and could have potentially caused more problems. If anything they should cover the cost just as a way to make it up to the guy who had his car abused. You can't seriously tell me that if this happened to you and you KNOWING you are taking your car to be fixed and had a bunch of children mess with it wouldn't want the company to take at least some accountability for the actions of its workers..? Is it the company's fault that the employees did this? Of course not, but they are still RESPONSIBLE over the actions of their workers and should do something to make it up to the owner of the car.
No one knows whether or not problems were worse because of whatever they did or if something else came up. Will they end up doing this? Probably not. He shouldn't expect or demand it but it should be a kind gesture they should give him. Not to mention however they deal with the guy who did this.
Keep in mind a story like this, if it goes around, can ruin the company. How else would they make it up to him exactly? I don't think the owner ever wants anything to do with these guys. And its not like this story hasn't spread that much.
If the dealership sent the tow truck, wouldn't they question why the car hasn't arrived at the dealership in a reasonable time? The tow driver took the car and drove for a good whole day before he took it back to the dealer.
If the dealership sent the tow truck, wouldn't they question why the car hasn't arrived at the dealership in a reasonable time? The tow driver took the car and drove for a good whole day before he took it back to the dealer.
Sunday.
Dealer wouldn't have seen the car until Monday. Dealerships are closed on sundays in Texas.
Dealer wouldn't have seen the car until Monday. Dealerships are closed on sundays in Texas.
He could still show them the footage of what happened during that day it wasn't there.
I'll be honest I was wrong about saying they should fix what happened before. But as a means of not completely screwing the customer over completely they should at least consider it.
10-27-16, 08:44 PM
Tow truck driver flatbeds then joyrides GT-R (NSW language)
