Woman's Story About Car Didn't Add Up

West Des Moines police recovered a rental car last week after representatives of the subscriber-based OnStar auto security company located it in the Jordan Creek Town Center parking lot deactivated the ignition so it wouldn’t start.

Officer Ryan Anderson exited his vehicle with his weapon drawn and ordered the woman who was sitting in the driver’s seat – later identified as Cathy Lynn Barr, 43, of Omaha – to step out of the 2013 Chevrolet Malibu with her hands in the air.

She complied, according to Anderson’s report on file at the West Des Moines Police Department.

Barr reportedly explained to police that a man she met about a week before on a web site allowed her to use the rental car to drive to Chicago after she said her car wouldn’t make it.

But authorities with the Port of Portland Police Authority told  different story. A woman matching Barr’s description had rented a car from Alamo on May 30, reportedly using a credit card issued in another woman’s name who Barr claimed was her sister. The car was due back June 1, according to the report.

Apparently, another car rental business had declined to rent Barr a vehicle because they believed she was acting suspiciously, according to the report.

As police were conducting an inventory of the vehicle a marijuana joint weighing 9 grams was found. Barr reportedly claimed to have a cannabis prescription card. Medical marijuana is legal in 18 U.S. States, but it’s illegal in Iowa, Anderson explained.