SAN ANTONIO – A longtime USAA customer, who has filed a lawsuit against the company in San Antonio district court, claimed the insurance giant refused to provide towing assistance after his vehicle broke down nearly two years ago in Matamoros — three miles from the U.S.-Mexico border.
The suit, filed in February by retired Air Force major CL Lucas, accuses USAA of deceptive trade practices and breach of contract.
Lucas’ suit seeks more than $1 million in damages and notes the vehicle was partially stripped after being abandoned along a street in Mexico by a mechanic the family hired.
In statements to KSAT, USAA officials defended the company’s roadside assistance practices but also reimbursed Lucas for the cost of the cross-border tow and paid him a late claim fee.
Stranded three miles from the border
In August 2024, Lucas’ wife drove the couple’s Volvo XC90 to Matamoros to visit family.
While on the trip, the vehicle experienced engine trouble. His wife was unable to drive it back across the U.S.-Mexico border.
Lucas believed the couple’s USAA auto insurance policy provided roadside assistance for up to 75 miles into Mexico. The claim is listed in the company’s app and on its 24/7 Roadside Assistance website.
Lucas told KSAT his wife attempted to use the insurance company’s app, which immediately tried to dispatch a tow truck to Brownsville, Texas, located on the U.S. side of the border.
After Lucas and his wife attempted to use the app multiple times, she then called the company’s international line.
“What they told her is: ‘We can’t help you,’” Lucas told KSAT. “What was unconscionable was that when you’re within three miles of the U.S.-Mexico border that there is absolutely zero resource that’s available, public facing or to what I knew, to get you from Point A on the Mexican side to Point B on the U.S. side.”
After five days of unsuccessfully attempting to get the car back to the U.S. with help from USAA, the couple hired a mechanic in Mexico to work on the car’s engine.
“The hopes were that this individual would repair the car well enough that we could limp it across the border and get it over to a more reputable mechanic and eventually limp it back to San Antonio, where we have a specific Volvo mechanic that we trust,” said Lucas.
The couple’s Plan B did not pan out.
The mechanic stopped communicating with the couple. For weeks, Lucas did not know where his vehicle was.
The car was finally located two months later, in October, along a street in Matamoros, further into the interior of Mexico.
Lucas shared pictures with KSAT Investigates, which show the vehicle partially stripped and its engine mid-teardown.
Lucas said the car also had water damage in its rear portion that compromised an onboard computer.
Lucas, whose government security clearance prevented him from traveling across the border to retrieve the Volvo himself, was finally able to find a vendor through the U.S. consulate and got the car back into Texas by mid-October 2024.
The cross-border tow cost $1,600, according to payment records Lucas provided to KSAT Investigates.
Lucas’ lawsuit contends that USAA updated its app last April to allow users to refine their exact location.
“This remedial update — released after the August 5, 2024 incident — constitutes an implicit acknowledgement that the automatic GPS detection system was insufficient and that USAA knew of and could have corrected the deficiency before Plaintiff’s spouse was stranded,” the suit states.
Dispute between USAA, Lucas escalates
After Lucas filed a report with the Brownsville Police Department for vandalism done to the vehicle while it was in Mexico, he turned in the report to USAA as part of a claim on the damaged car.
Lucas said he was then questioned by a USAA special investigator and asked to provide a statement under oath.
Lucas declined but said he is now forced to report being interviewed by the investigator anytime he takes part in a government background screening.
Lucas amended the police report last April to reflect a theft by conversion, a term used to describe the misuse of property that is entrusted to a person.
He confirmed the Volvo is still not working properly.
Lucas also filed a complaint against USAA with the Texas Department of Insurance (TDI), the state agency that oversees the insurance industry.
In February, in a response to TDI, a USAA official wrote, “Policy provisions for roadside assistance were reviewed. Based on our investigation, the vehicle’s mechanical failure occurred in Mexico, an area not typically covered under the roadside assistance provisions of the policy.”
USAA declined to make a representative available for an interview for this story.
A company spokesman instead sent KSAT a statement March 20 indicating that “members who request assistance in Mexico are informed that USAA offers reimbursement for roadside assistance expenses incurred there.”
That same day, Lucas was issued a check from USAA for $2,008.43, for the cost of the cross-border tow and to cover a penalty fee under the Texas Prompt Payment of Claims Act.
The check was issued 592 days after Lucas’ wife first requested towing assistance through USAA’s app and more than 500 days after Lucas submitted the $1,600 invoice to USAA for the tow.
Lucas, who is representing himself in the lawsuit, contends the reimbursement covers approximately 3% of the damages he has suffered during the more than year-and-a-half long ordeal.
USAA sent KSAT the following updated statement in late March.
“USAA Roadside Assistance covers members throughout the United States and within 75 miles of the Mexico border. Members who request assistance in Mexico are informed that USAA offers reimbursement for roadside assistance expenses incurred there. USAA is among the last major insurers to offer reimbursement for roadside assistance expenses incurred in Mexico.”
USAA
Read more reporting on the KSAT Investigates page.