Instead of paying $3,500 for repairs, a woman allegedly paid someone to steal her car. Surveillance footage shows the recruited driver hitting an employee while fleeing.
Terrella Lewis, 28, brought her car in for repairs, but she didn’t have the money to pay, says Kitu Veal.
Costs were rising. Lewis risked accumulating storage fees while her car sat at Veal’s shop. Veal offered to move the car to his secondary site while she started working things out.
“I put it on the street right here for maybe ten minutes,” Veal said standing outside his West End location. “Then I went into the side of my building. I’m walking into the building, I hear the alarm go off, like the chirp of the alarm. So I turn around and saw a guy running to get into her front seat.”
Veal thought the driver was stealing from or stealing the car.
“Everyone who comes to my business, I protect their car like it’s mine,” said Veal. “It would hurt my heart to know that someone’s property got taken while it was in my possession.”
Police say Lewis gave someone her car key and $30 to steal it to avoid paying repair costs.
Veal jogs to the entrance and stands in front of the car on surveillance video. He says he told the driver to stop, but he hit Veal and pulled him down Central Avenue.
Veal says he wouldn’t have stopped the driver if he’d known what was really going on.
“The only reason I stood in front of this car was so he didn’t take your property and put you in a worse position, and you were the person who sent them down here the whole time,” he said.
The individual who struck Veal has yet to be identified. Lewis is currently being held for complicity at the Hamilton County Justice Center on a $10,000 bond.
On June 30, she will appear before a grand jury.
