Police: Pen pal took car to buy drugs

For 18 months while she was in prison they were pen pals, regularly corresponding and making plans for her release.

The plans, according to New Port Richey police, included him picking her up at the Lowell Correctional Institute when she was released Wednesday, then they would take their relationship off the page.

"They had intended to enjoy each other's physical contact," said Capt. Jeffrey Harrington.

At some point on Wednesday, they checked into the Riverside Inn in New Port Richey. Theresa D. Jones, 49, told Howard James Cook, 62, she was going to run out to his car and get the case of beer.

Only she didn't come back, said Harrington.

"She had other plans," the captain said.

About 10 p.m. Cook reported to police that his white 2007 Suzuki Forenza was stolen from the hotel at 7631 U.S. 19.

Shortly before 7:30 Thursday morning, police found Jones in the hotel parking lot. She was getting out of the stolen car, Harrington said.

"We don't know if she was returning it," he said.

She admitted to stealing it so she could buy crack cocaine, Harrington said.

Inside the car, police found crack and crack pipes.

"The beer was still inside the car," Harrington said.

Jones, who just completed an 18-month sentence on an escape charge, was arrested on charges of grand theft auto, cocaine possession and two counts of drug paraphernalia possession. She had been serving a five-year prison sentence on prostitution and drug charges when she escaped, records show.

She is being held at the Land O' Lakes Jail with bail set at $7,300.

Evidently, this wasn't part of the plan.

Harrington said that Cook, a registered sexual offender, planned on moving Jones into his Fort Myers trailer with him and his wife. The home is near Fort Myers High. In 1995, Cook was convicted in Collin, Texas, on a charge of lewd and lascivious behavior on a child under 16, records show.

Jones' Florida Department of Corrections record even lists his address as where she would be living after her prison release.

The moral to this story, said Harrington, is "be careful who you write to."