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How a mom stole a car in under 60 seconds

How a mom stole a car in under 60 seconds

Approximately 721,000 automobiles were stolen in the U.S. in 2012, so car thefts are a common occurrence. Except when they're not.

After a weekend brunch with her boyfriend, Emilee Hickert returned to where she thought she had parked her Honda Civic. “There was just an empty spot where the car had been,” Hickert said. Luckily, a nearby shop's surveillance camera captured video of what appeared to be a professional thief, who made off with the car in less than 40 seconds.

Hickert reported the theft to police, and walked home. Friends offered little consolation, saying “Red Hook [Brooklyn]’s not really that nice.”

The following week, fliers started showing up in the neighborhood, reading: “I didn't steal your car but I think my mom may have. It's a long story. I'll explain, but your car is safe and sound."

To make a long story short, the flier's creator, Nekisia Davis, asked her mother, Cheyrl Thorpe of Houston, to dog sit her Pomeranian while she and her friends took a weekend trip to Miami. Davis also asked her mom to move the group’s three cars — a green Honda Accord, a Honda CR-V, and her own Fiat — so they wouldn’t get ticketed.

On Sunday, April 6, Thorpe moved the cars a block away, and proudly texted her daughter: “all cars moved successfully!”

Only, one of the Hondas was the wrong car. Thorpe had the keys to a green Honda Accord, but she moved a green Honda Civic. Although it wasn't the same model, year or body type, at the time she had little reason to suspect that anything was wrong, until Davis returned and found her friend Deanna’s Cypress Green Pearl Honda Civic parked in the same spot. Realizing that her mother had accidentally and improbably moved a neighbor's car, Davis posted fliers around the neighborhood, and informed local police, who dismissed the incident. “I’m sorry, this sounds suspicious, and I don’t really believe you,” police at the local 76th precinct told her.

When a New York Magazine writer noticed the fliers and first reported the story, police contacted Hickert, who retrieved her car from the impound lot — along with a $190 fine, which Davis has offered to pay.

This tale ends well, but it raises the question: How likely is it that someone else's key will be able to open your car? “Highly unlikely, like finding a needle in a haystack,” says Honda spokesperson Chris Naughton. Given that most car keys have multiple (usually five or more) tumblers and different depth variations, the potential key combinations number in the thousands. Moreover, most automakers now embed an immobilizer chip into keys — Honda introduced the technology to Accords in 1998 — which puts the odds of mistaken identity at one in several million for newer vehicles.

Brooklyn residents may now resume their usual habit of posting fliers about missing cats.