From time to time, the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office investigates very strange cases that raise more questions than they answer. This is one of them.
On March 28, Jazmine Arnold, 22, a graduate of Flagler Palm Coast High School and the University of Florida who now lives in Chicago, left for the Navy from the Volusia County Mall. Her father, James Major, of Prince Patrick Lane in Palm Coast, said goodbye to her, then took her vehicle–a Nissan Altima–from the mall and brought it back to his home in Palm Coast, according to a sheriff’s report. He parked it in the driveway and left it there for months, untouched.
Arnold was coming home this weekend. Major wanted to clean up the Altima for her. When he went to open the car, it wouldn’t unlock. Major thought the battery was dead. He bought a new battery, had a locksmith open the car and installed the new battery. The car still would not start. So Major had the Nissan towed to a dealership in Daytona Beach (at the Auto Mall), where he’d bought the vehicle.
A few days later, Ted McKinney of the Nissan service department told Major that the car he’d dropped off was not his daughter’s. The VIN number and the license plate did not match those of the vehicle he’d bought. So Major called the police.
A sheriff’s investigator ran a check on the tag attached to the vehicle. It revealed that the vehicle had been reported stolen in Volusia County on march 27, the day before Arnold had left for the Navy. The tag was then replaced by another (BHDL97) which was registered to a 2012 Dodge belonging to a resident of Port Orange. Yet the vehicle taken to the dealership, Major told police, was identical to his daughter’s, and even had her belongings in it, according to the police report.
A Carfax report was run on the impostor vehicle. It revealed that that Nissan had been in wrecks twice in 2009, and was then categorized as “salvage or junk” due to theft on June 4. Major said his daughter’s car had never been involved in a wreck and had been kept in pristine condition.
“Through an investigation,” the sheriff’s office reported, “it was determined that at some point, Jazmine’s vehicle was swapped with the stolen vehicle as it sat in the driveway of 24 Prince Patrick Lane.” So Jazmine Aernold’s vehicle was entered as stolen in a database, and a Be On the Look-Out issued for it.
Preston Zepp says
Ok, a car was switched for the exact same year and modle, color everything? Out of all of the cars in the east coast of Florida. The odds are a very,very looooong stretch,don’t you think? I am not saying anything about anybody, just trying to figure out how this happens.
Russ says
Come on, How many time have you or maybe seen someone walk up to a car thinking is was theirs. Because it looked the same color and model of car. Here are so many cars out there that are the same in mine ways.
Miguel Diaz says
Sounds fishy indeed. Lol
Clint says
Obama was in Orlando not to long ago. Funny how things get all switched out and turned around when he’s in town.
Ron says
Now that comment was just plain dumb.
ANONYMOUSAY says
Yeah, but CLINT- Eastwood is the one who likes to interact with empty objects. May he shuffles from one car to the other, driver seat to passengers seat conversing with himself.
Geezer says
I talk to my chair because it is so supportive of me when I comment on Flaglerlive.
Linda says
What the hell does Obama have to do with anything/ You are not funny. It’s obvious what you are.
forwardthinker says
to Clint….. there you go again!!!!!
GoodFella says
If the vehicle had her belongings in it then Jazmine must have been it that car. The car could not have been switched at the driveway. How did someone get her belongings out of her car if it was locked and into the stolen one. Sounds too fishy, we dont have professional thieves in palm coast. Maybe somone at the dealership switched cars prior to her leaving. Did she bring it in to service in the begining of the year? That’s where I would look! Or did someone she know sell her car for her and then replace it with that one. She would have no idea that the car would have problems and dad would have it towed. And how did the police run a check on the tag attached to the vehicle and it came back stolen and then another tag was attached??? That makes no sense???
Toodle oo says
Organized stalkers do this with household items and sometimes even in the workplace. It’s a form of psychological abuse called gaslighting as well as a source of cash.