By LESLIE EIKLEBERRY
Salina Post
Police are looking for the person who stole a license plate from a 73-year-old Salina woman's minivan while the vehicle was parked at a store Tuesday afternoon.
The woman had gone into Dollar Tree, 1201 W. Crawford Street, leaving her 43-year-old daughter sitting in her 2013 Dodge Grand Caravan, Salina Police Captain Paul Forrester said this morning. At approximately 3 p.m. Tuesday, a Hispanic male pulled in next to the vehicle in a black Dodge Caravan.
Forrester said the daughter saw the man get out of the black minivan, go to the back of her mother's minivan, and unscrew and take the license plate, which was Kansas 776HBX. He then got back in the black minivan and drove to nearby Club Carwash.
The daughter went into the store and told her mother what had happened. When they exited the store, a man approached the older woman and handed her a license plate, asking if it was hers. That license plate, Kansas 240PGM, was reported stolen out of Garden City, Forrester said.
When the woman asked the man whether he had stolen her license plate, he took off running.
Forrester said the man was described as being Hispanic, 5'-8", and weighing 150 pounds. He was wearing all-black clothing and a black ball cap with a yellow brim.
Surveillance video from Club Carwash shows the man pull up next to the Salina woman's minivan. It also shows him unscrewing the license plate from her minivan, taking it, and then parking his black minivan at Club Carwash. Additionally, it shows him walking from Club Carwash to Dollar Tree and handing the woman the stolen license plate, Forrester said.
The man and the black minivan were last seen heading north on S. Broadway Boulevard.
The license plate was valued at $15.