A Watertown resident thought her car was stolen by a man she had hired to paint her house and his girlfriend, but it turned out the car they arrived in was the sketchy one.
On April 21 at 3 p.m., a Fairfield Street resident called police to report that her car was missing and the man she leant it to also had a bank check she had given him, said Watertown Police Lt. James O’Connor.
“During the day she let they guy and his girlfriend take her vehicle to get supplies for her job,” O’Connor said. “Later in the day, when the people didn’t come back, she called police and at the time reported the vehicle stolen and he had a bank check and a small amount of cash.”
She was able to cancel the bank check.
At about 5:30 p.m., she called Police again to report the vehicle had been returned.
Police came out and found that the car that the couple had arrived in, which was owned by the girlfriend, had two different license plates, and both plates had been reported stolen, O’Connor said. The plates were seized and the vehicle was towed.
When they talked to the girlfriend, police officers found that she had bought the car from a guy named Victor and she had taken the car to a mechanic to have it examined.
“Se did not know how the plates on her vehicle,” O’Connor said. “She provided a title and bill of sale, and in the officer’s opinion she didn’t know how she had improper plates.”
The resident did not press charges on the man for taking her car, and believed it was a misunderstanding, O’Connor said.