LYNN — A Lynn woman was committed to a mental health facility after police said she stole a car from an auto dealer and then returned two days later demanding the vehicle’s title, according to court documents.
“I’ve had people come in and steal a car over the years on several different occasions,” Lynnway Auto Sales owner Richard Aswad said Wednesday. “It’s the first time I’ve ever had a car stolen and the thief come back and asks for the title.”
Ghislaine Lormil, 35, of 7 Liberty Square #712, was arrested and charged with larceny of a motor vehicle and giving a false name/Social Security number to police at 10:13 a.m. Monday.
Police responded to Lynnway Auto Sales on Monday on a report that a woman who had stolen a Toyota RAV4 Saturday had returned and was speaking with the dealership owner, according to a report by Lynn Police Officer Paul Holey.
Aswad said Lormil visited the dealership on Saturday and was looking at several small cars. When an employee went inside the office to get a dealer plate so that Lormil could take a test drive, Lormil drove away with the vehicle, Aswad said.
“There were three other cars that day she’s looking at — she’s going back and forth — and when (the employee) came in and got a key for a fourth one, she scurries around to other side of the car and hops in and starts driving off with it!” Aswad said.
He said he immediately recognized the woman when she returned to the dealership Monday morning and gave him a card saying she needed the title to the car. He said he invited her into his office and tried to ask her questions — particularly questions that would enable him to bill her for the stolen vehicle, he acknowledged — under the guise of filling out the necessary paperwork. He said his assistant meanwhile called police.
Aswad said police arrived and began questioning Lormil, and she “just lied and lied.”
She took police to retrieve the car in Saugus, but “while in Saugus it was clear the female was not being honest regarding the vehicle,” Holey reported. “She stated that the vehicle was already en route to New York by a male subject she identified as Tim Smith.”
Police took her to the station and found the car keys on her during booking, Holey reported. Her fingerprints indicated she had given police a false name, he added.
Police located the vehicle in the parking garage across the street from Lormil’s address, police said. It had no damage, but had been driven 50 miles, Holey reported.
Lynn District Court Judge Ellen Flatley ordered Lormil held on $1,000 cash bail at her arraignment Monday, according to court documents. But Flatley also ordered Lormil to return to court the next day for an evaluation. Judge Albert Conlon ordered her committed to a hospital Wednesday.
Lormil’s defense attorney declined to comment on the case when reached Wednesday.
Aswad said Lormil did not act abnormally when she visited the dealership Saturday.
“She was not agitated, not on drugs, because we experience plenty of customers that we can’t deal with,” he said.
Rather, he said surveillance videos suggested Lormil had a specific plan.
“She set us up, set (the employee) up, showing she was interested in a few vehicles,” he said.
“In between looking at the first and second (vehicles), she got into her car and parked it around the corner then came back ”¦ She definitely knew what she was doing — there was motive and a plan.”
But he acknowledged returning to the scene of the crime Monday was odd.
“You’d think somebody would be a little crazy to do that,” he said. “It’s never boring on the Lynnway.”
Cyrus Moulton can be reached at [email protected].
