INDIANAPOLIS — A man accused of stealing a car with a 70-year-old woman inside out front of a downtown Indianapolis parking garage is facing kidnapping and auto theft charges.
Justin Matthews, age 29, was later arrested in Illinois by Moultrie County deputies.
The incident happened on Dec. 7 at about 12 a.m.
Court documents state that a woman called police to report someone drove off in her Chevy Equinox with her 70-year-old sister inside. The woman explained to police that she parked in front of the entrance to the parking garage at 15 W. Maryland St., near the Circle Centre Mall. She said she exited the vehicle to look for her purse, which she believed she had dropped in the parking garage earlier that night. She then heard her sister scream, tires squeal, and saw her vehicle take off eastbound on Maryland.
Her sister was found at the transit center after an IndyGo bus driver saw her in the middle of the road crying at Maryland St. and Virginia Ave. and picked her up, per court documents.
The woman told police that she was sitting in the car while her sister looked for her purse. That’s when a man — later identified as Matthews — walked in front of the car, noticed her sitting by herself in the passenger seat and got into the driver’s seat. She said she screamed and opened the door to flee, but Matthews drove off at a high rate of speed. The woman recalled yelling at Matthews to let her out as her foot dragged along the ground, but he said nothing.
After a few blocks, the car slowed down enough that she could jump out. The woman said she then walked back from where they came and noted that this was painful because she was recovering from knee replacement surgery. She estimated that she walked a couple of blocks before the bus driver picked her up.
After Matthews was arrested in Illinois, he admitted to authorities that he had stolen the vehicle in Indianapolis and was trying to get to Chicago, court records say. A deputy noted that during his arrest, Matthews told him “as an excited utterance” that he stole the car because he didn’t feel safe, documents state. Matthews was booked into jail in Moultrie County.
