RICHMOND, Va. — Just before 2 a.m. on July 29, Rosalyn Crump was awakened by word that police were outside her home and a tow truck was taking away her Hyundai. Officers believed the car was connected to a shooting. Crump told them they had the wrong car.
Richmond police later acknowledged that she was right.
Crump told officers her 2012 Hyundai Elantra had been in her possession that day. She said she’d spent time at her mother’s home and returned by about 4 p.m., in time to meet her children’s bus. An officer told her that data from the city’s Flock license plate cameras put the car in Gilpin Court, somewhere she said she hadn’t been.
Body-camera footage obtained by WWBT’s 12 On Your Side shows that at least one officer had doubts. Officers shined flashlights into the Hyundai and noticed that the child seats were still strapped in. One suggested the suspects might have staged the car to make it look ordinary. The tow went ahead.
“This is interrupting my life,” Crump told police. “I’m not even frustrated. This is scary to me.”
Richmond police told WWBT that the Flock data had led officers to the wrong vehicle. Crump said she was later told that police cleared her car about four hours after the tow, once they found the actual suspect, but that she didn’t learn about the release until several days later. Seibert’s Towing president Melvin Lawson gave Moneywise a different timeline: He said the detective released the car Aug. 3 and that Crump was notified by phone that day.
By the time Crump saw the Hyundai again, there was another problem: It had been damaged. She said it was no longer drivable. Seibert’s acknowledged damaging the front bumper cover, provided a rental at its expense and towed the Elantra to a body shop Crump chose. The company said it agreed to pay the shop’s $2,212 estimate for work on the bumper cover, wheel liners and fog lights. It disputed a later estimate of about $6,058 that included suspension and steering parts it said the tow hadn’t damaged.
Seibert’s eventually turned the matter over to its insurer, which declared the car a total loss because repairs would cost more than it was worth, Lawson said. The reporting did not establish what, if anything, Crump ultimately received. A fundraiser for the family said she was paying for a rental herself. Crump said the transportation trouble had already cost her wages and left her worried she might lose her job.
Flock’s cameras photograph passing vehicles and log their license plates, giving police a way to look up where a car has been seen. Richmond had 99 of the readers as of September. Mayor Danny Avula had already decided against renewing the city’s contract, which runs through June 30, 2027, before Crump’s story aired.
For police, the wrong car was a lead they could rule out and move on from. For Crump, it was the car she needed to get to work.
