Christopher Andrew Clark

Cape Coral Police are crediting a social media tip for finding the man who allegedly stole a vehicle in Cape Coral.

On July 25, at around 2:25 p.m., Cape Coral officers responded to the 1900 block of Northeast Pine Island Road about a report of a stolen vehicle. The victim told officers she arrived at around 12:45 p.m. to shop, was inside the store for about an hour, and when she came out, her black pickup truck was no longer in the parking lot, and her key fob was missing. She said she either dropped the key in the parking lot or accidentally left it in the truck.

She called OnStar to lock the vehicle and turn the ignition off.

OnStar advised that the truck had been parked at 535 Pine Island Road in North Fort Myers for the last 30 minutes. The Lee County Sheriff’s Office was notified and located the truck unoccupied, and the victim confirmed it was her vehicle.

The Lee County Sheriff’s Office obtained surveillance video from a nearby business showing three people walking away from the truck.

On Aug. 6, the Cape Coral Police posted the surveillance video to its Facebook page, asking the public for information about the three. A tip from the public led to the identification of two of the three people. One person was identified as Christopher Andrew Clark, 31, who was already in the Lee County Jail.

Detectives interviewed the other person identified in the video. That person was also already in the Lee County Jail. That person said the three of them were at the location on Pine Island Road when Clark walked away to “see a friend.” When he returned, he told them the friend gave him the truck and they all got in. The person said Clark hit the OnStar button and panicked, and that’s when they apparently realized the truck was stolen.

The person confirmed a photo of the truck was the one stolen from the parking lot and that Clark was the person in the other photo.

Clark has been charged with one count of grand theft of a motor vehicle.