A woman was left “extremely frightened” on the side of a Massachusetts highway Monday after making the horrifying discovery that a man had been hiding underneath a coat in the backseat of her car while she was driving.
A police officer in Yarmouth, near Cape Cod, was patrolling Route 6 just before 1 a.m. Monday when he approached a vehicle he thought was disabled — only to discover a “scared and upset” woman standing outside the car trying to call 911, police said in a statement.
The woman “appeared to be scared and upset as she explained to the officer what had just occurred,” police said.
The woman told the officer she had just left a friend’s house and didn’t notice anything abnormal as she drove — until a light suddenly came on inside her car.
Startled, the woman peered into the backseat and discovered she had an unwanted stowaway attempting to hide inside her car.
“As she looked into the back seat, she was surprised to see a man hiding with a coat pulled over his head,” police said.
“Extremely frightened, she began driving erratically and the man fell out of the open rear door of the car.”
Following a brief investigation, the Yarmouth Police Department located and arrested the suspect, 36-year-old Jailton Dos Santos of South Yarmouth.
Dos Santos was arrested and charged with breaking and entering into a vehicle in the nighttime, police said.
While the unidentified woman luckily escaped the harrowing situation unscathed, police said they hope the terrifying ordeal will serve as an important safety reminder.
“The Yarmouth Police would like to remind everyone to make sure they lock their unattended vehicles, especially at night,” the department noted online.
Police did not share why Dos Santos was in the woman’s car.