Man steals car, lists it on Craigslist, tries selling it back to owner

A man looking to buy a car on Craigslist thought it seemed suspicious when he found a 1970 Chevelle listed that the seller said had been "abandoned."
Instead of buying the car, the Port St. Lucie man looked up the owner’s name on the Internet and gave him a call.

The real owner said his car and a 1989 trailer had been stolen earlier that day.

Pretending to be a potential buyer, the real owner called the man selling the car and arranged to meet him in Boynton Beach to take a look at it. Then, he called Boynton Beach police.

Around 8 p.m. Monday, after the owner looked at the car and saw that it was his, officers arrested William Paul Jones and charged him with grand theft auto, burglary, and dealing in stolen property.

Police said at first, Jones told police that he thought the car had been abandoned. He later confessed to cutting the lock to the property on Fearnley Road and using a Chevy Blazer to steal the Chevelle and trailer. He also admitted to taking numerous other car parts, including alternators, a power steering box, a dashboard and floor shifters. Jones also said that he broke into an abandoned house on Baytree Circle so that he could store the stolen property.

Jones was taken to the Palm Beach County Jail.