PC man charged with auto theft

A Platte City apartment complex maintenance man has been charged with stealing a fellow resident’s vehicle, with other charges pending.  Christopher Mejia, 34, of Platte City, has been charged with motor vehicle theft and is under investigation for several other thefts near the Woodland Trace apartment complex. Mejia is being held at the Platte County Detention Center on $10,000 bond. According to court documents, Platte City police were called to an apartment on Bello Mondo Drive on April 13 to investigate a stolen vehicle. A resident who had been out of town for two weeks for work returned home to find his 1993 GMC Sierra pickup missing. A witness reported seeing Mejia and a friend of the victim’s who had been apartment sitting drive off in the truck and a Jeep Cherokee also belonging to the victim. The vehicle was located at a St. Joseph scrap yard on April 22. The Buchanan County Sheriff’s Department located the man who had sold the truck to the scrap yard, who said he had purchased the vehicle from Mejia in a cash transaction at a St. Joseph gas station. Mejia offered to sell both the truck and the Jeep, but the St. Joseph man only purchased the truck, for $500 cash. Mejia refused to speak to police April 24 and a warrant was issued April 25, with Mejia taken into custody on April 28. A hearing before Judge Quint Shafer is scheduled for May 20.