Wet paint used to designate street lanes stained a University of Memphis student's car as he left campus Tuesday afternoon.
Senior hospitality and resort management major Chris Moody's burgundy Mazda Tribute was splattered with yellow paint along the driver's side doors, tires and tire wells as he drove down Patterson Ave.
After leaving a class in the Fogelman College of Business and Economics building around noon, he drove from the visitor's parking lot on Patterson toward Southern.
"I paid the meter, though," he laughed, pointing out that students aren't supposed to park in that lot.
After arriving home, he said he noticed the yellow paint on his car and thought, "What the hell is that?"
He then drove to Sunshine Carwash on Southern to try to wash the paint off.
"I used the scrub brush first, then I tried to scrape her off (using an ice scraper)," Moody said.
Neither of those attempts worked.
"By the time I drove to my house, it had dried," he said. "It wouldn't come off."
Moody said he believes it happened near the Patterson and Mynders intersection. He said he belives there was too much paint on the street, causing the paint to splash onto his car as he drove over it.
Moody called the city, filed a complaint and then called his insurance company.
"I'm going to let them try to handle it," he said. "I figure they'll get more done with the city than I will."
Lanes were being repainted at about the time Moody was driving on Patterson, but the streets were not blocked off.
It is unclear how much power, if any, The University of Memphis has in deciding whether a street is blocked off for repainting.
"I don't imagine we do have much say-so because it is a city street," said Curt Guenther, The U of M's director of communications services.
Tony Poteet, The U of M's assistant vice president of campus planning and design, was not available for comment. The City of Memphis' Director of City Engineering, whose responsibility it is to oversee lane painting, Wain Gaskins, was on vacation and could not comment.
Furthermore, no other person could comment because of a policy that only allows directors to speak to media.
