Originally Posted By: dlundblad
Originally Posted By: NMBurb02
Originally Posted By: dlundblad
Originally Posted By: eljefino
How did the employee get the keys after hours? The dealership was negligent in locking them up and their key sign-out policy.
Exactly. It was in their possession. Their employee. Their responsibility.
Their employee probably had keys to the service department and key lockup, considering he was a service writer. True, he was an employee of the company, but he was not acting as an employee of the company at the time that he took the car. There is an element of "garage keepers liability" due to the fact that it was in their possession at the time that it was stolen, but I do not see them as being negligent because they allowed a service writer to have access to the tools required for his job. I have key card access to three of my employer's offices. That does not mean that if I use that access to enter an office after hours and steal my co-workers' stuff that the company should be responsible for that theft.
2 completely different things here. The keys you have are most likely on your personal key chain and are yours until you are with the company. The "service writer" came to the dealership (on a Sunday) and took the keys from the dealers strong box.
As I originally said, "Their employee probably had keys to the service department and key lockup", and by "key lockup", I mean the box where they lock up the car keys. That seems reasonable enough to me, seeing as he is a service writer. If it was the GM of the dealership, would you still say the dealership is negligent? Who should be allowed to have keys to the customer key lock box?