Flock cam sent cops to tow a Virginia mom’s car at 2 a.m. It was cleared in 4 hours. She says she learned 4 days later

But in police body-camera video obtained by WWBT 12 On Your Side, one officer says the Flock camera data contradicts the route Crump described taking home. Not long after, Seibert’s Towing hauled the car away.

Crump says she was later told that police released the Elantra about four hours after the tow, once they tracked down the actual suspect. She says she didn’t learn that until roughly four days later, during a phone call.

Staff at Seibert's Towing, however, remember it differently.

Melvin Lawson, the company's president, told Moneywise that the investigating detective didn't release the car until August 3, and that Crump was notified by phone that day.

Crump says the Elantra came out of the tow too damaged to drive. Since then, she says, she's been running late to work. She's already lost pay, and she worries she could lose her job.

"This is interrupting my life. I'm not even frustrated. This is scary to me," Crump said in the police body cam footage.

Richmond police conceded to WWBT that the Flock data pointed officers to the wrong car. Flock Safety, an Atlanta-based company, makes license plate readers that photograph passing cars and log their plates, which helps police track where a vehicle has been.

The city had already started backing away from Flock before Crump's story aired. Mayor Danny Avula has decided not to renew Richmond's license plate reader deal with Flock, which ends June 30, 2027. As of September, the city had 99 Flock readers on its streets.

Similar mix-ups have surfaced across the country. The Institute for Justice, a public interest law firm in Arlington, Virginia, has two federal lawsuits over police using the cameras without warrants, one in Norfolk, Virginia, and one in San Jose, California.

Drawing on news reports and court documents, the firm has tallied at least 27 cases since 2018. In each case, a license plate reader mistake led police to stop, jail or point guns at drivers who'd done nothing wrong. More than half came in 2023 or later.What the body-camera video shows

In the video, officers peer into the Elantra with flashlights. One of them doesn’t seem sure it’s the car they want. “I don’t know, man. This doesn’t,” he says.

A second officer floats the idea that the suspects might have staged the car. The first officer agrees and notes that even the child seats were strapped in.

When Crump comes outside, one officer insists her car had been in Gilpin Court. Gilpin Court is one of Richmond’s public housing communities. Crump denies it.

Who’s paying for the damage to Crump’s car?

Richmond-based Seibert’s accepts responsibility for the damage it caused, Lawson told Moneywise. But he said that damage was limited to the front bumper cover and that the company disagrees with Crump’s account of what happened next.

Earlier, a Seibert’s vice president had owned up to the damage in an email to Crump.

“If we damage a vehicle, we make it right,” the vice president wrote. The company also gave Crump a rental car at its expense and towed the Elantra to a body shop of her choosing for free.

Crump said no to having Seibert’s handle the repair. She says the company never warned her about the damage and that she only spotted it as she walked out to the car, with the paperwork already signed.

Lawson said that the paperwork was a routine lot-entry form, not a release. He acknowledged that the front-desk employee who checked Crump in didn’t mention the damage but said an operations manager reached her before she got to the car, drove her to it and told her about the damage on the way.

According to Lawson, the body shop Crump picked estimated $2,212.30 to replace and paint the front bumper cover, wheel liners and fog lights, and Seibert’s agreed to pay that. Crump then asked for a full mechanical inspection, he said, and a dealership collision center quoted $6,057.84. That figure included ball joints and tie rods Seibert’s says the tow didn’t damage. Lawson added the Elantra had a failed state safety inspection sticker on it when it was towed.

“We will not be responsible for neglected maintenance on a 14-year-old vehicle,” he wrote.

At Crump’s request, Seibert’s eventually turned the matter over to its insurer, which declared the car a total loss because repairs would cost more than it was worth, Lawson said. Crump told WWBT the car was a total loss, too, after she had someone else inspect it. Seibert’s is no longer involved and can’t speak to where things stand now, Lawson said.

What to do if police tow your car by mistake

If police ever tow your car during an investigation, a few steps right away can protect you later.