Forced to choose between listening to his girlfriend or following the law, a Staten Island 17-year-old decided on the latter — and now he faces up to seven years in prison because of it. An Oakwood teen, identified in the Staten Island Advance as Sean Potop, told police that he and his girlfriend were at a Mariners Harbor movie theater on Dec. 7 when they saw a woman accidentally drop her car keys on ground. Potop claims his girlfriend grabbed the keys, waited for the woman to walk away, and stole the 2005 Mitsubishi Galant.
The girlfriend — whose name has not been released and is being sought by law enforcement — somehow outfitted the car with Florida plates, parked it near Potop's house, and apparently urged the teen to bring the sedan to a chop shop so they could split the proceeds. But Potop said no. "I didn't want to. I knew the car was stolen," he told police.
So instead, Potop walked into the 122 Precinct stationhouse today, told his story, and tried to turn in the car keys. But for carrying the stolen keys, prosecutors charged him with third-degree stolen-property possession, according to a spokesman for District Attorney Daniel Donovan. If convicted and sentenced as an adult, he could face a maximum of seven years behind bars, the Advance reports.
