Liberty County Woman's Car Stolen and Junked

Your car runs out of gas, so you leave it on the side of the road to go grab some… only when you return - your car is nowhere to be found.
As News Three's Alice Massimi explains - through a chain of unfortunate events... this woman's car is now far from drivable.

When Noreen Mozingo contacted "3 on your side" and told us the story of the disappearance of her car... we were shocked.
Not only was luck not on her side... state law didn't seem to help either.
“It's a 4 door tan station wagon,” recalls Mozingo.
While driving to a doctors appointment in Savannah Noreen Mozingo's Car ran out of gas on I-95 in Liberty County.
Thinking it would be safe to lock up and deal with after her appointment she called her mom for a ride....never did she link this man Harvey Lee Johnson would get to her car first.
“About 3.5 to 4 hours later I came back. My car was gone. So I called the GSP. I called all the police stations from Hinesville to midway. I called them to see if someone towed my car they had no record of it,” says Noreen.
So she reported it stolen and hoped it would turn up... the next day it did but not in the condition Noreen imagined.
While Noreen was getting gas police believe Johnson brought Noreen's car to Top Dollar Recycling in Garden City. Because the car was more than 12 years old he didn't need to present a title. All he had to do was sign a piece of paper saying the car was his and the junkyard gave him 250 dollars. The car was crushed.
“I felt like I was going to faint. I was just shocked how could Jarrell’s (aka Top Dollar Recycling) do something like that without knowing whose car it was, “ asks Noreen.
We wondered the same thing so we sat down with Liberty County's District Attorney Tom Durden.
As it turns out Jarrell’s did no wrong, at least to the best of our knowledge.
Johnson on the other hand is being charged with theft by taking, a felony.
Noreen's happy they caught Johnson but worries how she'll get another car.
“I really don't know what I am going to do without a car.”
The Liberty County Detective working on Noreen's case says this is not a common occurrence... he does warn people to not leave their cars unattended.
Johnson, the man accused of taking Noreen's car, could face up to twenty years in jail for this incident.