A local man is in the Texas County Jail on $500,000 bond and faces a felony auto theft charge after a Houston Police Department investigation that began last summer.
James W. Fithen, 33, of 305 S. Second St. in Houston, is charged with first-degree tampering with a motor vehicle (a class D felony).
An investigating officer reported to the county prosecutor that on July 27, information was received that a gold 2002 GMC Yukon stolen from Rockford, Ill., was parked in front of Fithen’s house. The SUV reportedly belonged to a woman who was his father’s girlfriend.
After the officer confirmed that the vehicle was the one reported stolen, contact was made with a woman inside the house. The officer advised her the SUV out front was stolen, and asked for its keys. The woman reportedly told the officer it wasn’t stolen and Fithen had acquired it after his dad died.
The woman then called Fithen, who was in Rockford, Ill., and he reportedly told her to give the officer the keys.
The officer then spoke with Fithen, and he reportedly said he had brought the vehicle to Missouri after his father died, and that the girlfriend’s name should not have been on its title unless she forged his dad’s name.