A Virginia woman faces a theft charge after police say she stole a vehicle from a gas station parking lot Wednesday night.
Carter County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Christian Carrier arrested Chelsea M. Jesse, 24, of 3302 Clinch Stone Road, Apt. B6, Saint Paul, Va., early Thursday morning and charged her with theft of property.
According to police reports, Carrier responded to the McDonald’s restaurant in Hampton around 11 p.m. on Wednesday on a report of a stolen vehicle. Once he arrived at the scene, Carrier met with a man who reported his green 1994 Mazda Protege had been stolen.
“(He) stated he had pulled into the parking lot to repair the vehicle,” Carrier said. “He stated he went into the McDonald’s to get a McFlurry and when he returned outside he stated the vehicle was no longer in the parking lot.”
The man told the officer he had left the keys inside the car and the vehicle was out of fuel.
“(He) stated he called a friend to see if they had borrowed the vehicle and they stated they had not but had seen the vehicle parked at Valley Forge Church with a female in the driver’s seat,” Carrier said.
During the early morning hours on Thursday, CCSO Deputy Sean Huvane located the vehicle and observed a female subject, later identified as Jesse, sitting on the trunk of the car.
“Mrs. Jesse stated the vehicle had run out of gas and her cousin ‘Heather Ashley’ had been picked up by unknown subjects to retrieve fuel for the vehicle,” Carrier said. “Mrs. Jesse stated that her cousin, Mrs. Ashley, was the girlfriend to the owner of the green Mazda and they had been given permission to use the vehicle.
“I then contacted the owner of the vehicle, (name withheld), who stated he had no relationship with either of the female subjects and had no knowledge of who they were and they also did not have permission to use the vehicle,” Carrier added.
Officers placed Jesse under arrest and transported her to the Carter County Detention Center. “While being transported, Mrs. Jesse did ask multiple times if she could apologize to the owner of the vehicle ‘for all the trouble she caused,’” Carrier said.
Jesse remains held at the Carter County Detention Center under a $1,000 bond and is scheduled to be arraigned in Carter County General Sessions Court today.