Seconds after a woman allegedly stole a vehicle, she fled from police in the car before leaving it at a stop sign.
Luisa Soto, 24, of Hobbs, was arrested on Feb. 9 and charged with unlawful taking of a motor vehicle, a third-degree felony after allegedly fleeing from police and abandoning a stolen vehicle she was driving.
According to the Hobbs Police Department criminal complaint, Soto was driving on Marland at a “high rate of speed” after midnight on Tuesday.
Officers followed Soto when the vehicle began turning down streets to evade police.
“I observed the vehicle not stopping at any stop signs,” the reporting officer states in the report.
The officer found the vehicle abandoned while parked at a stop sign on Scharbauer and Jefferson.
“I then walked up to the vehicle and noticed it was unoccupied and the engine was left running,” the report states.
Officers began looking in the area for the driver and several minutes later heard dispatch report a stolen vehicle from a gas station on Marland.
A nearby school camera caught Soto get out of the vehicle at the stop sign and run.
“The subject then ran up to a house with a porch light on and was hiding by a vehicle,” the report states.
This is where they found Soto by police, “crouched down in front of a van.”
“While Soto was being detained she openly stated that she took the car from her ‘baby daddy’ because she thought her child was in the car,” the report states.
The driver, who was not the registered owner of the vehicle claimed, the car’s owner stopped and walked into a convince store when Soto allegedly stole the vehicle. The car owner did not mention a child or if he knew Soto, according to the report.
Soto had her first appearance Tuesday morning in Hobbs Magistrate Court and was issued a $1,000 cash bond. According to court records Soto is scheduled to appear for a preliminary hearing on Feb. 18 with Eunice Magistrate James Jones.
