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.