My question involves criminal law for the state of: North Carolina
I will try to keep this short, My employer (an automotive service provider) has had a car stored inside its facility for over 2 1/2 years (about the length of time I have worked there). I expressed interest in renting this vehicle for a day for personal use and was told by my boss that he had spoken with the owner of the car and they had agreed to let me use it. I was told that because the owner of the car had not paid any storage fees to keep the car in our shop (owner of car is a close friend of the owner of shop) I could use the vehicle for no charge. I took my shop owners word for this and took the car. The vehicle was damaged while I was using it and estimates are around $3500 for repairs. The market value for the car itself according to kelly blue book is only $1200 but the car has a large number of modifications that puts the true market value around $5500. Now the owner of the car has found out about the damages and is threatening to charge me with theft of the vehicle and a monetary lawsuit unless I pay $16,000 (a value that he has come up with to build the vehicle from scratch again.) because he claims he was never contacted about me using the car. I am afraid of being charged with theft after I was told by the person responsible for the car that I could use it, and am worried about having to pay roughly 3 times the fair value of the car just because of the situation. I have offered to repair the damages and return the car to its previous condition and I have offered to purchase the car at a slightly higher than fair value but neither option was accepted and he is demanding the $16,000
Thanks for any advice.

