A male non-student from Jackson County was arrested last Wednesday in Tallahassee, Florida, in connection with a car that was reported stolen from the Helder parking lot.
On March 9, a female student reported that her car, a 1993 Chevrolet Lumina, was missing from Helder. University Police drew up a warrant for the arrest of her boyfriend, who was suspected of taking her car without permission, according to Gene McAbee, director of public safety.
The suspect, who had told the female student that he had attended a small college in Tallahassee, got away with the student’s car after taking her keys to the vehicle, said McAbee.
The stolen vehicle’s tag number and description were entered in the database of the National Crime Information Center. Tallahassee police had probably stopped the male who was driving the stolen car because of a traffic violation, run the license plate number through the computer, and found that the car had been stolen, said McAbee.
The car is now in the possession of a Tallahassee towing company, and the non-student is being held in a Tallahassee jail, awaiting extradition to Jackson County, where he will be tried for auto larceny as well as some other offenses relating to an earlier break-in of another vehicle.
According to McAbee, the suspect has been charged with breaking and entering a motor vehicle, larceny of a credit card, and credit card fraud. He allegedly broke into a faculty member’s car, stole a credit card, and then used the stolen card at Wal-Mart.