A Flowood woman who took her car to a dealership for repairs was alarmed to discover the vehicle being driven around town by one of the employees.

She followed it. Then, she took it back.

Penny Ivey Thompson posted to Facebook her unusual experience with the Mac Haik dealership in Flowood. By Thursday afternoon, her post had gone viral, being shared more than 4,400 times.

Thompson said she originally brought her Dodge truck, also known as "Big Bertha," to the dealership to be serviced.

According to her Facebook post, Thompson was later driving down Lakeland Drive when she saw her truck being driven by someone from the dealership. She initially thought it was a test drive, but she said she was concerned because the driver was tailgating another vehicle.

She did what anyone would do in today's universe of smart phones and social media: She captured the moment and shared it on Facebook.

"That moment you see a Mac Haik employee test driving your Dodge down Lakeland Dr. TAILGATING another vehicle. I followed him to see if my truck would make it back in one piece because I know it doesn't stop on a dime and this this point just wanted him out of it," Thompson wrote.

Thompson said the technician drove to Lowe's about two miles down the road from the dealership. She said she had waited 20 minutes while the man was inside, when she called the dealership to ask them if they knew where her truck was.

She then made her boldest move yet.

She said she found a spare key in her purse and took her truck back, leaving the technician stranded in the parking lot.

"Ya know.... every now and then I get crazy. I will own that. I found my spare key out of my purse and I steal MY OWN DODGE from Lowes parking lot cause ya see I’m a Home Depot kinda girl anyway," she said.

Thompson said she returned to the dealership and confronted someone there. She claims someone at the dealership offered to service her vehicle for free — with one condition. She was asked not to post her story to social media.

Thompson didn't listen.

"Do not mess with my family, my animals, my money, or my truck. Nobody drives Big Bertha like that. Nobody."

William LaGrange, the dealership's general manager, commented on a follow-up post from Thompson.

"I am fully aware of the situation that has occurred and I am disgusted that an employee of mine would take a customer's vehicle for anything other than official use. I take full responsiblity (sic) for what has occurred. Swift action has taken place and will continue to take place," LaGrange said in the Facebook comment.

LaGrange said the employee who took the truck had been fired and that the service manager had been suspended. LaGrange also said he has invited Thompson and her husband to meet with him so he could formally apologize in person.

"Penny and her family have every single right to be mad at what has transpired. I am embarassed (sic) both professionally and personally by what has occurred, and I will do what it takes to make sure that something like this never happens again," he said.

Robert Watson, owner and operator of the dealership, told the Clarion Ledger Thursday that he accepts responsibility for the incident and said he would make sure service technicians were properly trained on how to handle customer vehicles. He vowed the situation would not happen again.

"We love our customers, and simply put, it just didn’t happen that time. We're not running from it. We're apologizing and hitting it head on. We should treat customer vehicles better than we treat our own vehicles," he said.

He provided the following statement on the incident:

"On behalf of the entire Mac Haik family of dealerships, we apologize for the unfortunate experience our customer received from the Mac Haik Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram Flowood dealership. ...

"Mac Haik Flowood strives to always exceed our customer expectations. Our Texas and Mississippi locations have a long-standing history of meeting this expectation, and we employ 350 hard-working Mississippi employees who accept this challenge each and every day. We recently fell short of this goal and have taken appropriate company action against the employee who violated our policies. We trust that this one action will not tarnish the good name and reputation of our company and our remaining employees who stand committed to our philosophy of strong business ethics, superior customer service and commitment to excellence."

Contact Justin Vicory at 769-572-1418 or jvicory@gannett.com. Follow @justinvicory on Twitter.