An Edgewood business owner is facing criminal charges and more than a dozen civil lawsuits for allegedly allowing people use vehicles that customers brought to him to be serviced, and for not completing work even after customers paid.

Waters Auto Service in Edgewood has been in operation for 17 years and is owned by Glenn Waters, 54, of Bel Air, according to charging documents. Waters, who is named as a minister at the New Hope Baptist Church in Bel Air in many of the church’s live streams, is charged with felony theft of $1,500 to under $2,500; two felony counts of unlawful taking of a motor vehicle; unauthorized removal of a motor vehicle and appropriate property without consent.

The incidents leading to the charges date back to June 24 when the owner of a 2017 Honda Accord took his vehicle to Waters Auto to be serviced, court documents state.

The owner of the vehicle and Waters had been in close contact about the vehicle until July 20, when Waters said he was having health issues, according to charging documents. The documents outlined text messages between Waters and the vehicle’s owner, which showed Waters stopped responding to the owner after July 20.

Frustrated with how long Waters was taking to repair the Honda Accord, the vehicle’s owner went to the auto shop on July 30 but found that his vehicle was gone and the store was closed, the documents said. The owner reported the vehicle stolen to the Harford County Sheriff’s Office and received a text from Waters the following day on July 31.

“Today is my first day out of coma. I don’t know what the heck is going on. When I left to go to the hospital, the car was at the shop. I will be back next Friday hopefully,” Waters wrote to the vehicle owner, according to court documents.

License plate reader databases showed the vehicle was at locations that weren’t Waters Auto Service, while text messages between Waters and the owner showed Waters indicating the vehicle was at the shop, court documents state. The person driving the Honda Accord told police Waters told him the vehicle belonged to his daughter and that Waters let him use the car while his car underwent repairs.

Charging documents said the man told police he had the Honda Accord for about a month — coinciding with the date it was dropped off at Waters Auto Service.

Similarly, a woman dropped off her vehicle at Waters Auto Service and paid Waters $1,177 for repairs, but reported her vehicle stolen July 29 when it went missing from the shop, according to charging documents. Police later found her vehicle, which she said in a written police statement was “in worse shape than before and not drivable at all.”

Waters Auto Service has five unanswered complaints with the Better Business Bureau; the business has an “F” rating. Complaints date back to early 2024 and outline incidents in which customers brought their vehicles to Waters Auto Service, paid thousands of dollars upfront for “parts” and then either never heard from Waters, or the work wasn’t completed.

The business is listed as “permanently closed” online. A representative of the business told The Baltimore Sun that the business had been sold “recently” and that Waters was still in the hospital recovering from two surgeries.

More than a dozen people and businesses, such as Heritage Honda of Bel Air and Mariner Finance have open claims against Waters and Waters Auto Service.

According to online court records, Waters has two upcoming trial dates in Harford County District Court for felony theft charges, on Sept. 9 and Oct. 6. Waters does not have an attorney listed.

Have a news tip? Contact Matt Hubbard at mhubbard@baltsun.com, 443-651-0101 or @mthubb on X.