Overly Long 'Test Drive' Gets Man Arrested

Lloyd Kraft took Ford F-250 for a spin ... didn't come back: police
By Kate Seamons,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 3, 2013 8:13 AM CDT
Overly Long 'Test Drive' Gets Man Arrested
We know this is not a key to a 1997 Ford. It's the best stock art could do.   (Shutterstock)

It's kind of like that episode of Seinfeld, just with a less glorious ending. Police say a Florida man visited Belleview's Prestige Auto on Friday with a fairly typical request: He wanted to test drive a 1997 Ford F-250. Lloyd Kraft reportedly ponied up a phone number and copy of his driver's license before being handed the keys. The 67-year-old then set off, with an employee following him, in the Ocala Star-Banner's telling, "all over" the county—but at some point, the employee got separated from Kraft.

After three hours, the employee realized Kraft probably didn't just stop off at a mechanic to have the car checked out—suspicions that were likely compounded by the fact that the phone number Kraft produced didn't work. When police found Kraft, he had an easy explanation: He was just using the truck for work. Indeed, police found tools and two-by-fours in the truck's bed. Kraft told a Star-Banner reporter it was "a honest misunderstanding": He says he told the employee he'd have the truck for a while, and he just forgot some of his phone number's digits. Apparently the fact that he put $10 of gas into the truck wasn't enough to buy him mercy; he was charged with grand theft auto. (More weird crimes stories.)

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