Second thoughts? Bluffton car thieves try returning stolen vehicle while police on scene

A car thief with cold feet reportedly decided to return the stolen vehicle to its owner at a Bluffton apartment complex — but when he arrived to see police on scene, he fled on foot and left his friend to take the blame, according to the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office.

Deputies arrived just before 1 a.m. Monday morning to the Emerson Isles apartments off Simmonsville Road, where a resident reported his 2015 Chevrolet Sonic had been stolen. The man had left his keys in his unit’s front door while he went inside to find his wallet, he told police. When he came back outside, both his keys and car were gone.

While police questioned the man, he and his roommates “heard the exhaust of his Sonic” and saw the compact car driving into the complex’s driving lot, according to a sheriff’s office incident report. One deputy climbed pack into his patrol vehicle and approached the vehicle, which had come to a stop before a man stepped out of the driver’s seat.

The driver, identified as Bluffton man Angel Rostro-Barron, told deputies he had been contacted a few hours before by his friend in Hardeeville, who admitted to stealing the compact car from the apartments and asked for help with “either stashing the vehicle for later or dumping it somewhere,” according to the incident report. Rostro-Barron agreed to help and was later picked up in the Sonic, he told police.

Shortly after, his friend reportedly drove the pair to the Abberly Chase Apartments in Ridgeland, where they attempted to steal a orange dirt bike. The full-size bike could not fit in the trunk of the compact car, Rostro-Barron man advised officers, so they “simply ditched the bike” in the nearby woodline. (A spokesperson from the Ridgeland Police Department could not be reached Thursday afternoon for questions about the purported theft.)

But the friend soon began having second thoughts: He told Rostro-Barron he decided he “no longer wanted” the car and wanted to return it, asking him to drive because the friend “had been in trouble for stealing in the past,” the report says.

As Rostro-Barron man drove them into Emerson Isles and the men saw the sheriff’s vehicle approaching, his friend reportedly panicked, exiting the car and running away. The driver told police he was “shocked” to see his friend flee but decided to stay so he could return the stolen car, which deputies turned over to its owner.

Asked if the man had any proof his friend was with him, Rostro-Barron showed deputies a Snapchat video of himself riding in the Sonic earlier that night while another man drove. The man said he was “happy” to provide any information to law enforcement because his friend “left him to take the fall for a crime he did not commit,” according to the incident report.

Still, deputies arrested the man for possessing a stolen vehicle because he had driven the car while knowing it was stolen, according to sheriff’s office spokesperson Master Sgt. Danny Allen. He faces a felony charge because the value of the Sonic was more than $2,000 .

Rostro-Barron was released from the Beaufort County jail on a $5,000 cash bond Monday, the same day as his arrest, according to judicial records.

Allen said the sheriff’s office had not yet been able to contact the friend, but deputies had swabbed the stolen car for fingerprints and were continuing to investigate. He encouraged any neighbors at Emerson Isles who might have security footage of the incident to call the non-emergency dispatch line at 843-524-2777.

With vehicle thefts and break-ins occurring on a near-constant basis in the Hilton Head Island area, police advise residents to always lock their car doors, avoid storing valuables in unattended vehicles and park in areas covered by security cameras if possible.