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TOWN OF CHENANGO -- Eighty-seven-year-old Jesse T. Ross of Port Crane is no criminal, but police were on the lookout for the four-door Chrysler New Yorker he was driving Wednesday morning.
Jesse Ross, 87, of Port Crane, drove home a champagne colored, 1991 Chrysler New Yorker Fifth Avenue after running an errand. Unfortunately, he didn't notice it wasn't his. Ross owns a '93 version of the same car.
The New Yorker looked like his car. When he placed the key in the ignition, the engine turned over just as it did in his car. Problem was, it wasn't his car. And by the time Ross discovered the error, police already had been called by 50-year-old James F. Smith of South Street, Port Crane, the anxious owner of a missing Chrysler New Yorker.
"I got into the vehicle accidentally. The key worked. It was just like mine, leather interior and power windows," Ross said.
Broome County Sheriff's Sgt. Tom Williams, who was on patrol, received the call about the missing champagne-colored 1991 four-door Chrysler New Yorker.
"Suddenly, there it was, right in front of me," Williams said. "I pulled up beside him rather than activate my red lights to identify the person in case he decided to run from me."
Ross knew immediately that he was at the center of a huge misunderstanding. He'd figured out he was driving a car that wasn't his.
Here he was, a man with a clean driving record for 70 years, who couldn't remember being pulled over since he got his license in 1935, accused of driving a hot car.
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