A Nashville student's car was damaged when a thief parked an excavator on top of it during a joy ride, forcing him to get the sentimental, family car scrapped.
Littlefield was riding his bike home from a friend's house in May, when he noticed the equipment parked in an odd spot outside of his apartment.
"I thought, 'Wow, that's a weird spot for a crane. Wait, that crane is really close to my car,'" Littlefield recalled. "as I got closer, i realized the crane was sitting on my car."
Littlefield called police who discovered a a construction company working nearby had left the keys to the excavator in the ignition. A thief took the machine for a joyride, ultimately smashing the shovel onto the roof of Littlefield's car.
The Belmont music business major said the company refused to take responsibility for the incident, but fighting for payment in small claims court would likely cost more than the old car was worth. He totaled the experience up to a sentimental loss.
"Both of my sisters learned to drive in that car, they took me to my first college party in that car," he said. "And I remember my grandmother taking me to get ice cream in that car when I was really little. But it's not worth dwelling on."
Instead, Littlefield took $200 from a scrap yard for the scrapped the car, which was passed down from his grandmother, to both of his older sisters, and ultimately to him.
"My parents gave it to me for college and they said to take care of it, because there wouldn't be another one coming after," Littlefield said. "I've always worried about the transmission, the engine, and I had just replaced the radiator in it. I was trying to take good care of it and then a crane comes and completely crushes it."
It's a story Littlefield was forced to relay to his supervisor his first day as an intern at WME, a talent booking agency located at Roundabout Plaza.
"I asked him to run an errand and he said that would be a problem," said Leigh Ann Jones, an employee at WME. "He said his car was crushed by a crane, and of course no one here believed him until he pulled out the pictures."
Those pictures pushed Jones to help out.
"I have a son who is a freshman in college," Jones said. "I just kept looking at Miles and thinking that could be him in four years, and I'd hope someone would step in to help him out."
Jones crated a GoFundMe campaign with the goal of raising $5,000 toward a no-frills, used car for Miles. Contributions from coworkers and strangers have funded about two-thirds of that goal so far.
Support Littlefield said may prove his bad luck has run out.
"To have this network of people so willing and so generous, that's something special," Littlefield said.
This is the link to donate to the GoFundMe campaign.
