Sherae Honeycutt

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Original Post

A Lee’s Summit couple is still trying to get their car repaired after it was crushed by concrete in a city parking garage.

Nearly one month ago, part of a KCMO parking garage ceiling collapsed on their car. Since then it’s been back and forth with the city, and their car is still crushed.

Back in April, Brad Korn and his fiancé came back to a smashed sunroof, scratched and dented body with glass everywhere after a night out in KCMO. Almost a month later it looks the same.

“When we first met I said, ‘I hope they don’t drag their feet on this.’ They did. So here I am again,” Korn said.

Korn said part of the Auditorium Plaza garage ceiling fell on his fiance’s car, a 2010 Acura TSX.

“This parking garage, there were no spots. It was completely packed. Do you know the odds of someone being under that when it happens next time?” Korn said.

Since then, Korn said the city has been giving them the run-around.

“Five or six days later, we finally got a rental car, and then that was for a short period of time that extended about a week ago. Then we had to wait a couple of days to hear back from them to see if they would even extend it,” Korn said.

He said the estimate they received from a local Acura dealer was $12,000. The city sent them an estimate of around $7,000 with an offer for a little over $8,000.

“The offer is less than what we owe on the car, and they take out the salvage price. If you know anything about salvaging a car, they take out the salvage price, so we get thousands less than what’s owed on the car. So we can’t even pay the car off. That wouldn’t fix the car. It’s shorter than the estimate by about $4,000, so we can’t put the car back to the way it was before we went in the parking garage,” Korn said.

The garage and Barney Allis Plaza will soon have a $63 million overhaul. Korn said, until then, driver beware.

“It’s like, you’ve got to be careful. You’ve got to look above. You’ve got to look above the garage. If you see cracks, if you see anything that doesn’t look right, don’t park there. It’s dangerous,” Korn said.

If you don’t, you may find yourself financially crushed.

“It’s happening all around in that garage. You just don’t know when it’s going to happen and when it’s going to happen to you,” Korn said.

Chris Hernandez, the spokesperson for KCMO, said they can’t comment on the difference in numbers but did say their legal team is working with the family on their claim. Hernandez said after the incident the facility had an engineering evaluation, and they haven’t heard of any new issues.