ODESSA, TX (KWES) - Odessa Crimestoppers are asking for your help looking for a man who broke an automated car wash. He caused more than $8,000 worth of damage and he knew exactly what he did but drove off anyway.
"He's got a piece of pipe laying across the pipe rack in the back, so it sticks up above the roof of his truck," said Odessa Crimestoppers Susan Rogers. "When he pulls in, you actually see the pipe hit the seven-foot clearance sign and it swings back and forth."
You would think when he got out of his truck to check on the equipment in the back, he would have noticed the pipe. But it's too much work to move that, so instead, he drives into the bay and breaks the car wash.
"He goes on in to the car wash and into the bay, and the arm goes around a couple of times and it bumps the pipe and when the bigger arm comes around you actually see it get hung up on that piece of pipe and the whole thing shuts down," said Rogers.
When he notices nothing is happening, he gets out, looks at the arm, gets back in his truck and drives off.
"What he did was cause $8,000 worth of damage to that car wash," Rogers said.
Not only that, but the car wash owner has showed law enforcement how he makes $400 from that bay each day. So while the bay was being repaired, he lost $3,600 making this a $12,000 accident.
"If he would have done it and it was an accident, he could have called somebody," said Rogers. "Something would have been better than just driving off and not doing anything because now you've left the owner with damaged property and that's against the law."
Now this is actually a Class "C" Misdemeanor so he won't even get arrested but we're bringing it to you because the dollar amount is so high. Don't do what this guy did. Stop and come clean because grime doesn't pay.
