An 82-year-old woman who was mowing her lawn Monday told Doña Ana County Sheriff’s detectives that a man she saw exiting her house allegedly took the woman for a joyride in her car before a convenience store clerk scared the suspect off and called police.
The incident began Monday afternoon at the woman’s house off Shalem Colony Trail, west of Las Cruces. According to the victim, she noticed her 2002 Chevy SUV appeared to have been moved out of her carport. At the same time, she saw an unidentified man walking out of the back door of her house.
The victim said the man told her he had scared off a suspected burglar inside her house, and offered to go with the woman to get help from police. The victim said the man had her car keys in his hand.
The victim agreed, and was reportedly driving to the sheriff’s department when the man rerouted the woman to Fairacres Elementary, where he told the woman a sheriff’s deputy was going to meet them. At that point, no calls to the sheriff’s department had been made. Once at the elementary school, the suspect forced the woman into the passenger’s seat and took over driving the victim’s car.
According to the victim, the suspect drove her to Mesquite and then to Mesilla Park. The victim pleaded with the suspect to stop and allow her to get something to drink. The two stopped at a convenience store on Avenida de Mesilla, where the woman told a clerk that she had been kidnapped and needed to call police.
An argument ensued between the clerk and the suspect, who tried to convince the clerk that the woman was his grandmother and she was just confused. The clerk, not believing the suspect, called police anyway. The suspect then fled in the woman’s SUV.
Sheriff’s detectives are working on identifying the suspect. Anyone with any information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477) or send a tip via text message to CRIMES (274637) using the keyword LCTIPS. Both the Crime Stoppers number and text messaging service are operational 24 hours a day and you do not have to leave your name to collect a reward.
Information from Dona Ana County