Vehicle owner uses app to track dealership employee taking 'unauthorized rides' in his SUV

NAPERVILLE, Ill. -- When you take your car in for service, you trust the dealership will fix it, not take it for a spin.

However, one man said a dealership employee was driving his SUV for personal use -- and can prove it.

When Jonathan Gregory took his Ford Explorer into Fair Oaks Ford in Naperville, Illinois, for a repair, he didn't think he'd have to monitor the FordPass app, which tracks his car.

The problem? When he checked his vehicle's GPS app, while overseas, he saw it was being taken on "unauthorized rides."

Those rides weren't around the dealership, he said.

"I left my car in the trust of the dealership... and here I am in Germany and my car is being driven back and forth to a neighborhood I don't know," Gregory said.

Gregory grew suspicious after the first time he brought his car in, when he says he noticed 100 more miles on the vehicle.

"When I took it back the following weekend, I took a photograph of my odometer," Gregory said.

Then, after taking a photo with his miles at 8,302 miles, he monitored his Ford app while he was in Germany. What he saw floored him.

"I look at my phone and I think, why is my car in Berwyn? That's nowhere near the dealer," Gregory said. "I have daily screenshots from the app where the car was going back and forth to Berwyn every day for several days."

He shared screenshots with our sister station WLS from his app of the car driving on the local expressway, traveling about 25 miles from the dealership.

A screenshot from the app showed his mileage grew to 8,440 miles. That's 140 more miles while it was in the shop for that second time.

Gregory says he was initially told that a technician had to drive the car around to record the sound the car was making, because Gregory needed a repair on a noisy sunroof. Gregory wasn't buying the excuse and said the driving was excessive.

"And I have I-PASS reports," Gregory said. "When you log into I-PASS, you can see when your car has gone through tolls."

Gregory filed a report with the Illinois Attorney General and continued his complaints to the dealership, asking to be let out of his lease. He says that request was denied, but the dealership gave him a lifetime of free oil changes and maintenance on the vehicle and didn't charge for that repair.

A letter from the dealership attorney also says they would cover tolls and not charge for miles over "340 miles" after the lease. The letter noted that he granted employees permission to operate the vehicle, but not for unauthorized purposes.

The dealership's general manager told the I-Team, " Fair Oaks Ford takes customer concerns extremely seriously... Our dealership has strict policies that prohibit employees from using customer vehicles for any unauthorized purpose. When this issue was first brought to our attention, we immediately launched an internal review, identified the employee responsible, and took swift corrective action. That individual's employment has been terminated as a result of this violation of our policies. We are reinforcing our internal procedures and employee training to ensure that customer trust is never compromised."

The dealership also says it regrets the incident, which does not reflect the values and standards of its team. The dealership added it worked with Gregory to reach a resolution, which included a full interior and exterior detail of his vehicle at no charge.

"The two most expensive purchases people make in their life are their cars and their homes, and you don't want either of them being used without your permission," Gregory said. "It really just feels like a violation of trust."

Car owners should use the automaker's app to track location and mileage.

Even if you don't get a picture of your odometer beforehand, check your receipt. Excessive mileage could indicate unauthorized use.

You should also ask if they need to be driving your car for the repair and how long they will need to drive it.