SHOAL CREEK, Ala. (WVTM) – An Alabama man is upset after he says an airport valet took his brand-new Corvette on a joyride in an incident recorded on the car’s onboard camera.
Tim Scherer dropped off his 2023 blue Chevrolet Corvette at the valet stand at the Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport. When he picked up the car after his trip, he saw it had been driven about four miles while he was gone.
Scherer checked the onboard video that recorded every move his car made. He says the video caught the valet laughing as he took the car for a lap around the airport not long after Scherer handed over his keys.
“People pay a premium to park their cars there, and they assume that their cars are going to be handled with white gloves. To see and witness an experience like this, people need to know what’s going on over there,” Scherer said.
Scherer adds the recording shows the valet hit 6,000 RPMs more than once. He says that’s a problem since at the time, the engine had less than 300 miles on it.
“A lot of the performance cars have break-in periods, and the manufacturers are pretty strict on that. If you exceed those, all these cars have computers in them. They can see what was done in that first 500 miles, and it gives them a way out of covering any warranty issues,” Scherer said.
Scherer says his first call was to the manager of the valet company at the airport, who told him they would take responsibility for anything going wrong with the car. However, weeks later, he received an email saying the company would take no action since no damage was done to the car.
Scherer has accepted he has little recourse right now but wants to make sure other car owners know this can happen to them, too. As a matter of fact, he says the valet who drove his car is heard in the recording talking about another high-end car he took for a spin.
“He clearly states that he took the top surgeon in Birmingham’s McLaren out for a joyride, as well,” Scherer said.
Airport officials said in a statement that they are “looking into this matter” and will cooperate “to ensure that the responsible parties are held accountable for any misconduct which resulted in damages to any of our passengers’ vehicles.”
The valet company did not immediately respond to a request for comment. However, Scherer says the manager told him they fired the valet who allegedly took his car for a joyride.
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