WESTFIELD – A woman who drove a stolen car to the city to keep an appointment for visitation with her children was not arrested Saturday but her companion was.
The couple came to the attention of police Friday afternoon when a caller reported that a couple in a bright yellow sports car was seen swapping packages after going in and out of stores at the Westfield Shops.
Officer Michael Csekovsky reports he found the car in the parking lot and spoke with the sole occupant, a black man sitting in the passenger seat, who said he was waiting for his friend who was visiting with her children in a nearby fast food restaurant.
The officer reports that when the man was advised of the reason for the call the man denied that he had left the car.
When the officer asked the man to identify himself he said he had no identification documents with him and identified himself verbally but the social security number he offered did not have the correct number of digits. No record was found.
The man said that the car belonged to a friend of the woman and a check of the vehicle’s registration revealed that it was owned by a resident of Hyannis.
The man did agree to go to the restaurant with the officer to point out his friend there.
The woman he indicated left two children and another woman to speak with the officer and said that she was visiting with her children under the supervision of the other woman, a Department of Children and Families employee.
The woman told Csekovsky that the man’s name was not what he had told the officer (and had elicited no response in a records check) and told him what she thought his name was. She also said that the man had arrived at her home with the car (which she said belonged to a friend of his) to take her to Westfield for her visit with her children before the officer broke of their conversation so she could complete her time limited visit with her children.
While the woman visited with her children, Csekovsky continued his investigation of the man who said that the car owner had loaned it to the woman who was going to get crack cocaine for the owner. The man also said that both he and the woman had smoked crack earlier.
Confronted with the name the woman provided, the man offered his actual personal information and a check revealed him to be the subject of an outstanding warrant issued in 2013 by the Springfield District Court.
The officer noted that the man looked nervous and was continually looking around as if he might be preparing to flee so Csekovsky performed a pat frisk for safety to ensure the man had no weapons.
Csekovsky reports that he felt something that he believed to be a crack pipe and, when it was removed from the pocket, was found to be a glass tube used for smoking crack which later tested positive for cocaine.
After the woman completed her visit the officer resumed speaking with her and the man and found they had conflicting accounts about how the car came to be in their possession. The woman did eventually admit she had been driving because the man, she said, was unable to operate a manual transmission.
An emergency dispatcher was able to reach the owner of the car by phone who said that he had left it at a repair facility in Springfield on Thursday.
An employee of that repair shop was called and queried about the car and, after checking, said that it was missing from the lot.
The car had not been known to be missing before the police called and the business owner said that it must have been stolen between midnight and 8:30 a.m. It was reported to Springfield police to be a stolen vehicle.
The car was towed to a police impound yard.
Kenneth Otey, 43, of 24 Quincy St., Springfield and was arrested for possession of a Class B drug, receiving a stolen motor vehicle and on the warrant. He is expected to be arraigned Monday in Westfield District Court.
The woman was advised that a criminal complaint would be filed and she will be summoned to the Westfield court to answer a charge of receiving a stolen motor vehicle.
