A Roxbury mother says her Hyundai Tucson was supposed to be sitting in a repair bay — instead, her dashcam caught it cruising through Boston and into Weymouth while it was supposed to be getting fixed.
Shayna Morales dropped the SUV off at River Street Auto Center in Hyde Park after her extended warranty provider, ProGuard, directed her there. Days later, according to CBS News Boston, she spotted her own car stopped at a red light — with a stranger behind the wheel.
Morales confronted the driver, who told her she was coming from Weymouth. The woman offered no explanation for why the vehicle was outside Hyde Park before driving off, leaving Morales to walk to the train. Morales later said a shop mechanic identified the driver as his stepdaughter. When CBS News Boston’s I-Team visited the shop, a man identifying himself as manager “Jesse” said he didn’t recognize Morales’s name and would look into the incident, but did not follow up.
Dashcam footage reportedly showed the SUV racking up tolls through the Ted Williams Tunnel, and the odometer showed hundreds of extra miles logged during the repair window.
The unauthorized driving wasn’t the only issue. Morales says the shop installed a faulty replacement transmission and returned the vehicle with new damage. A follow-up inspection at a Hyundai dealership in Braintree reportedly found the transmission could fail without warning — a serious concern for Morales, who has a one-year-old child.
When Morales sought help, she says both the repair shop and ProGuard each pointed her back to the other, leaving the repair unresolved for weeks.
The situation changed only after Morales contacted CBS News Boston’s I-Team Call for Action team. Following the outlet’s outreach, ProGuard approved coverage for repairs at the Hyundai dealership. ProGuard did not provide the I-Team a formal statement but said in emails that it never required Morales to use River Street Auto Center, and that it was already working to repair her car by the time journalists inquired. River Street Auto Center did not respond to a follow-up request for comment.