Car Wash Criminal

Authorities are on the lookout for a woman who stole a widower’s 2011 Ford Fusion along with the ashes of his late wife in the backseat.

Melvin Hayes, 80, was on his way to have her ashes blessed when he decided to get a car wash.  A woman struck up a conversation with him and hugged him a couple of times.  The car wash employees assumed she was his girlfriend and allowed the woman to drive away in his car.

Hayes’ wife of 50 years had died just three weeks earlier. 

See C. Johnson & Gabriel Roxas, Woman’s Ashes in Auto Stolen from Calif. Car Wash, Dec. 13, 2013.