When the engine in Yolanda Huizar's Cadillac went bad she wanted it replaced. She had been taking her car to Personalized Automotive Service for the past five years, so she decided to take it there. Mechanic/owner Dave Rich told her it would cost roughly $5,000.
Huizar didn't have that amount, but scraped together $1,200, including securing a loan, as a down payment. She says Rich agreed to get started.
Huizar says a month or two later, things changed and Rich closed up his shop. That's only the first of the discrepancies in this story. Rich says it was more like a year later.
To make a long, convoluted story short, Rich apparently agreed to re-pay Huizar the money. In the meantime he also gave her a car. That's the second discrepancy in this story. Rich says he gave it to her, complete with the title, and said Huizar could do whatever she wanted with the car.
Huizar says Rich never gave her the car title. She said she tried to get it several times.
Eventually, the plates ran out on the car, and the apartment complex where Huizar lives had the car towed.
Fast forward now to when Huizar called us more than 18 months after originally taking her car to Rich.
Huizar says Rich did re-pay $250 of the $1,200.
Rich says it was $400.
He said he gave her a car which she gives him no credit for.
Rich says he feels in his heart that he made good on the situation with Huizar.
Huizar cried when we told her we, unfortunately, would not be able to get any more money back for her.
Sometimes it's hard to tell if there really is a bad guy in a story.
