Portales woman arrested for stealing police vehicle

PORTALES — A Portales woman was arrested Sunday after stealing a Portales Police Department vehicle.

Lt. Chris Williams said a call came into police dispatch sometime between 9 and 10 a.m. Sunday reporting that a vehicle with police written on the side of it had crashed into a telephone pole behind a Main Street business.

Anastasia Lynn Howell, 40, was arrested for commercial burglary, unlawful taking of a motor vehicle and leaving the scene of an accident involving damage to a vehicle.

According to a police report, after police found no vehicle or driver at the scene of the accident, they went to the Portales Animal Shelter to investigate and discovered the Public Service Aide Ford F-150 pickup truck was missing from behind the building, as well as the keys to the truck.

Police found several items scattered on the floor of the building and a jacket.

Williams said there were no signs of forced entry into the animal shelter and cameras from the Magistrate Court building only picked up Howell approaching the building and nothing more, so police do not know how she got inside.

Williams said other than stopping by a couple of times to feed and clean up after the animals, animal control officers do not work on Sundays.

He also said a short time before stealing the vehicle, Howell was spotted in the front lobby of the police department where she had asked to see a detention officer, claiming to be an inspector who needed to inspect the building. By the time an officer came up front, Howell was gone.

According to the police report, after the vehicle was reported to have pulled into the driveway at a residence on West Maple, police apprehended Howell as she was walking from the vehicle to the residence. The report said Howell was under the influence of an unidentified controlled substance.

“This whole thing happened in less than an hour,” Williams said, adding that the woman was heard laughing on the police radio at 9:34 a.m., and by the time he arrived on scene an hour later, she had already been arrested.

Howell is being held at the Roosevelt County Detention Center on a $3,000 cash or surety bond.