In January, I broke the story about the hundreds of Volkswagen TDIs being stored in the parking lot of the Pontiac Silverdome. Word got around quickly, and now the city is actually suing the owners of the stadium for “violations of the building and safety code, zoning ordinances and municipal code” associated with the stored VWs, The Oakland Press reports.
Late last month, the city of Pontiac filed six complaints against Triple Investment Group, the Toronto-based owners of the Silverdome, the newspaper says. One of the complaints alleges a violation of a city ordinance that required a special permit for parking cars outside.
The city also complained that Triple Investment Group violated a municipal code that requires a special business license for storing vehicles, as well as another part of the code requiring the property to be protected against trespassers.
The owners of the stadium—which was once a shining beacon of hope for Pontiac, acting as the venue for Super Bowl XVI, many NCAA tournament games and even a few FIFA World Cup matches—have not admitted responsibility, but they say that they’re working with the city to come up with some sort of amicable agreement.
This comes after VW started buying back hundreds of thousands of VW TDIs as part of a settlement for installing defeat devices that cheated on federal emissions tests.
There’s been all sorts of drama surrounding the whole Dieselgate scandal, including hoarders buying up cars to make tens of thousands of dollars, people stripping their cars, and tons of complaints from owners about the buyback process.
Still pretty sad to see them all sitting there, I guess.