A Dahlonega woman who claimed last week that her vehicle had been violently stolen from her by two men has been taken into custody by the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office due to “red flag” inconsistencies in her statement.
According to authorities, on March 26, Stacey Annette Garner, 44, allegedly reported to 911 that two men she had stopped to help in north Forsyth County had hijacked her 2003 Ford Explorer, using a rope to force her out of the vehicle and onto the ground, before driving away.
A sheriff’s office incident report states that while Garner was filling out a statement on the incident, deputies noted several inconsistencies in her version of the incident, specifically with the positioning of her Ford Explorer that was found “a couple hundred yards” away from Garner “totaled into a tree,”
“[Garner] said she was headed to the store from her sister’s house off Leigh (Lane), but the tire marks and debris field from the wreck showed that the Explorer had left the roadway coming from the opposite direction and taking out a sign and mailbox before hitting a tree with so much force that it caused the frame to warp,” the report states.
Cpl. Doug Rainwater, a sheriff’s office spokesman, said on Monday that they believe Garner crashed her explorer into the tree, called 911 a few minutes later and then fabricated the story about a hijacking for unknown reasons.
Garner was arrested on April 1 for filing false reports and making false statements to law enforcement officers and failure to report an accident.
She is being held in the Forsyth County Jail under a bond of $7,390.