Woman leaves SUV at Kia dealership for tire repair, but it sits there for a month. Then the manager admits what he was really doing

A Louisiana woman is considering legal action against a Kia dealership after discovering that employees had allegedly taken parts from her SUV to repair another customer’s vehicle. According to Shirley Poullard, it all started after she had brought her Kia Telluride to Kia of Lake Charles after a tire blew out.

Weeks later, she decided to check on the vehicle in person. What she found under the hood was not what she expected from a routine tire repair. The incident dates back to June 17, when Poullard suffered a blowout while driving on the interstate. She had the SUV towed to the dealership, expecting the tire to be replaced. Instead, it sat there for more than a month, with little information coming from the service department.

She directly asked the staff to explain themselves

KPLC 7 News reported that Poullard had struggled to get updates about the repair. After waiting weeks without a clear explanation, she went to the dealership to see what was happening with her vehicle.

Her Telluride was sitting in the service lot with the hood open and mechanics working on the engine. Poullard knew she had brought it in for a tire replacement, so she started recording and asked the staff to explain what was going on.

The service manager first told her that nobody had worked on the SUV since it arrived. That account changed as Poullard pressed him about what the mechanics were doing. He eventually admitted that employees had taken engine parts from her vehicle to fix another customer’s car.

According to the manager, the mechanics had removed two fuel injectors. He described the parts as having been “borrowed” and said they had already been put back. Poullard was also told she would not have to pay for the work.

That explanation did little to reassure her. Poullard called the removal theft and questioned whether the dealership would ever have told her if she had not turned up that day. She was also concerned that the staff could have replaced the parts and returned the SUV without disclosing what they had done.

She later posted the recording on social media, where it drew considerable attention around Lake Charles. The dealership faced public criticism and opened an internal investigation into the incident.

She has hired an attorney

Kia of Lake Charles eventually confirmed that the service manager had been fired. In its public apology, the dealership acknowledged that what happened fell short of its expectations for honesty, professionalism, and customer service.

Poullard got her Telluride back, but the experience has left her reluctant to drive it. She told local reporters she is still worried about the fuel injectors and whether anything else may have been damaged. She has since hired an attorney and is considering her legal options over the removal of the parts without her consent.