TAMPA, Fla. — A woman who used to own a car dealership in Tampa is behind bars after a traffic stop showed she stole two SUVs months after her business closed, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.
Yajaira Martinez, 39, of Riverview was charged with grand theft of a motor vehicle and possessing a vehicle with altered numbers.
On Wednesday, Martinez was pulled over on Interstate 75 in Sumter County for speeding and a tag violation on a 2018 Cadillac Escalade, the Florida Highway Patrol said in a news release.
The 39-year-old told authorities she had no paperwork for the SUV which had dealer plates attached, troopers say. The vehicle identification numbers – VIN – on the front windshield reportedly did not look professional and appeared to have been tampered with.
The tampering was confirmed after troopers requested to check the SUV's secondary VIN. That VIN belonged to a 2020 Cadillac Escalade and not the 2018 Escalade that law enforcement had stopped. The FHP says the dealer tag also failed to match the SUV.
"Both VIN decals had been swapped from the factory issue (2018 Cadillac Escalade) to reflect a 2020 Cadillac Escalade," FHP said. "A comparison of both VINs and the attached tag confirmed that the stopped vehicle was stolen from Pennsylvania."
Items in the SUV that was pulled over belonged to the 2018 SUV, and that's when Martinez let troopers know she recently closed her car dealership named Champa Bay Auto Brokers, which was first licensed in April 2022 and shut down in April 2023.
The investigation continued as troopers arrived at the area of the dealership where they found a 2022 Cadillac Escalade that was also confirmed to be stolen from Clearwater in June 2023. That SUV was also "re-vinned," authorities say.
The 39-year-old woman was taken to Hernando County Jail.
The investigation of the incident remains ongoing.
