CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A woman paid a Rock Hill auto shop $5,000 to help her buy a used car at an auction, but weeks after the purchase she still doesn't have the keys.
Veronica Robinson would like to have a new car, but instead she is driving her husband's old pickup truck and she has shelled out money to help her college-bound daughter buy a used car.
"Once they got the money, it was like the ball got dropped," said Robinson.
Robinson paid the owner of Big A's $5,000 to buy a used Honda at an auction.
"I even went to the auction and I saw the car. I was happy with it," said Robinson.
But she said after owner Bernard Gaston bought the car at the auction, she could not take possession.
At first she said he told her he lost the keys, and then said it had to go to the shop for transmission work.
"He never told me what shop it was in. He wouldn't give me the shop's name so I could call and check on it for myself," said Robinson.
She said this went on for weeks as she placed call after call to Gaston.
"He always says, 'I will call you back, I will call you back,' and it never happened," she said.
So Robinson asked Action 9 to help get her $5,000 back.
Action 9 went to Big A's and talked Gaston. He did not explain what happened, but said he would sell the car back to the auction to get Robinson's money and he did.
"This is my $5,000 back," Robinson said.
She said she will put that cash away for her daughter's college.
"We are going to forget the car. We are going to college," she said.
Action 9: Woman never sees car she paid Auto Shop to help buy
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