Police: Lancaster woman who broke into car claimed her car was broken into

Police allege a young woman committed two crimes in a Walmart parking lot earlier this month. First, she reportedly broke into a car. Then she allegedly lied to police about her own car getting broken into at the same time.

Lancaster police were called to the store on the Highway 9 bypass at 11 p.m. Dec. 9 after a car was reportedly broken into and an undisclosed number of items removed. While officers were at the scene, Ashley Gordon, 28, approached the officers and claimed her own car parked nearby had also been broken into, according to a press release issued Thursday from the police department.

But when investigators reviewed the store’s security camera footage, they didn’t see a thief breaking into Gordon’s car. Instead, they reportedly watched Gordon break into the first car they received a call on.

On Wednesday, police took Gordon into custody, having previously collected her information at the scene of the crime. She is charged with breaking and entering into an automobile and filing a false police report.

Lancaster Police Chief Harlean Carter said officers are investigating whether Gordon was involved in similar break-ins.

“It appears that this individual has been involved in other incident(s) of this nature,” Carter said in a statement. “Additional charges are forthcoming.”

This story was originally published December 17, 2015 at 4:44 PM with the headline "Police: Lancaster woman who broke into car claimed her car was broken into."