HENRICO COUNTY, Va. -- A Henrico woman says after months of noticing damage on her car she finally has video evidence to prove how it's gotten there.
Ajaya Mitchell’s parents gifted her a car when she graduated from college in 2011.
“I’m really proud of my car,” Mitchell said.
It’s the most expensive thing she owns and she takes good care of it, but somebody else apparently hasn’t been.
“It’s really disheartening…it was definitely avoidable,” Mitchell said.
Mitchell said over the past year, scratches kept appearing on her car.
They’re marks that cost a lot to repair.
“Personally, the estimate I got was $865,” Mitchell said.
She talked to neighbors who showed her the very same scratches on their cars.
“It’s a shame, it’s a shame,” Mitchell said.
Finally, she decided to use a camera to catch the person in the act.
“Whenever I actually watch the video of her hitting my car I cringe knowing that somebody is being that careless,” Mitchell said.
Ajaya Mitchell
Video captured by Mitchell’s boyfriend shows a car pulling into a handicap space and a door flying open, obviously hitting the car next to it.
“It’s undeniable that she hit my car,” Mitchell said.
Mitchell said the driver appears to be the woman who delivers the Richmond Times Dispatch.
She brought the video to the paper, and says the paper called a meeting with her and the driver.
Mitchell said the carrier denied everything.
“It was like, I’m speechless, we have you on camera,” Mitchell said.
CBS 6 reporter Melissa Hipolit went looking for the newspaper carrier.
A woman who answered the door didn’t want to go on camera, but did tell us nobody talked to the officer who took the police report, and the person with the video is not even a customer of the RTD.
Mitchell said she tried to file a police report, but police told her to instead pursue the issue in small claims court.
“It would have been one thing if she had owned up to it, and said I’m truly sorry for it, but now it’s about principal,” Mitchell said.
Daniel Finnegan, the Vice President of News and Digital Audience at the RTD, sent us the following statement via email.
“We are aware of the problem and have apologized for the damage done by the carrier. Because our carriers are independent contracts who are not employed by the company, we are working with all sides to come up with an acceptable resolution.”
