Witness video helps Bend PD find car stolen while warming up unlocked at restaurant, arrest suspect

Police reminder: 'Remember to HIDE your belongings, LOCK your vehicle and TAKE your keys with you'

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) – A Terrebonne man learned the hard way what can happen when you leave your car warming up unlocked in the parking lot of a fast-food restaurant. But thanks to a witness video, the suspect was arrested on DUII and other charges a short time later and his car was recovered at a hotel on Bend’s north end.

Bend police were dispatched shortly after 11 p.m. Tuesday on the reported stolen vehicle in the parking lot of Burger King on North Highway 97, Communications Manager Sheila Miller said.

Officers interviewed several witnesses who had seen a woman acting erratically in the area of Chevron and Burger King in the moments before the car theft, Miller said. The owner of the 2008 Hyundai Elantra had been warming it up, with keys in the ignition and the car unlocked.

One witness took a video of the suspect, and officers recognized the woman as having been trespassed earlier in the night from the Best Western Plus Bend North on Grandview Drive.

Sure enough, officers found the 34-year-old Bend woman and the stolen car in the hotel’s parking lot and arrested her on charges of DUII-drugs and car theft. She also was cited by violation for methamphetamine possession and was booked into the Deschutes County Jail.

"The Bend Police Department would like to remind members of our community to never leave a car running and unattended," Miller's news release concluded. "Remember when you park your vehicle to HIDE your belongings, LOCK your vehicle and TAKE your keys with you."