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​Hail repair shop rips off customer; Service King Collision Repair finishes the job 

Posted at 5:51 PM, Oct 25, 2018
and last updated 2019-10-22 11:45:04-04

Back in July, News 5 Investigates exposed a pop up hail repair company accused of forging a customer’s signature to steal thousands of dollars from his insurance company.

Our report caught the attention of Service King Collision Repair. The company decided to step up to the plate and fix the customer’s car for free. It’s a classic example to show there are good people committed to making things right when others do wrong.

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A 3-month long problem for Vernon Jones has finally come to an end.

“Service King put a brand new top on my truck, a brand new hood, knocked out all the dents on the side and fenders and painted it,” Jones said.

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Jones’ nightmare began when he took his red Dodge pickup truck to AAG Auto Hail Repair on South Academy. Employees there never finished the work they promised and instead, cashed Vernon’s unsigned insurance check they collected up front.

“That is not my signature,” Vernon told News 5. “I know how to spell my own name.”

Two certified forensic document examiners told us the signature on the check appears to be a forgery based on the stroke pattern and fact that Vernon’s name is spelled wrong.

Vernon’s known signatures are on the right. The alleged forgery is on the left.

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When we showed up to AAG’s location to ask questions, employees were not eager to talk.

One employee decided to wrap himself in a tarp to hide, while another employee grabbed our camera.

“They ran from the camera,” Vernon said. “They didn’t want to answer your questions.”

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Hector Pinedo, the owner of AAG Hail Repair couldn’t explain who signed Vernon’s name when we confronted him.

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“You never want to go to the fly by night places,” Rory Crosby with Service King Collision Repair said. “He was taken advantage of when they cashed the check and the story really bugged us.”

Crosby and other workers saw our story and decided to fix Vernon’s truck–no questions asked.

“He’s a Veteran and it’s the right thing to do when we saw the story,” Crosby said. “We wanted to do a good deed. We actually evaluated the roof of the truck and it was pretty heavily damaged. We ended up replacing the whole entire roof and the hood. It was probably about a $12,000 repair.”

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Vernon says he won’t be visiting any pop up repair tents in the near future. He also encourages people to make sure the repair center they go to is approved by their insurance carrier before forking over money.

“I was really satisfied with the job that was done to my truck by Service King,” Vernon said. ” I want to give thanks to KOAA Channel 5 News because without you, this wouldn’t have ever happened.”

Of course the folks at Service King are the real people to thank!

News 5 Investigates is committed to getting results and solutions. If you have a problem or issue you’d like us to check out, send an email to News5Investigates@KOAA.com.

Initially, Colorado Springs police would not take a case report for the alleged fraud and forgery involving AAG Auto Hail Repair but we started asking questions, police opened a criminal investigation.

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Although no arrests have been made and there are no new updates, police maintain this case is part of an active, on-going investigation.

News 5 Investigates will be following up with police weekly for updates.