Houseworth
Police arrested an Indianapolis woman after police say she gave officers a fake name while driving a stolen car and tried to swallow drugs while in a police custody.
Kay Naomi Houseworth, 39, was arrested on charges of vehicle theft and possession of methamphetamine, both felonies. She was also arrested on charges of giving a fake identity statement, possession of a controlled substance, and for an out-of-county warrant. The Johnson County Prosecutor’s Office will decide what, if any, charges to file.
Greenwood police were on patrol around 11:10 p.m. Monday when they observed a car with a recently expired license plate driving south near the intersection of South Park Boulevard and Main Street. Officers pulled over the car near a gas station in the 1100 block of East Main Street. The driver, later identified as Houseworth, first gave police a fake name and birth date placing her in her later 30s. She also told them she couldn’t remember part of her Social Security number, though she was able to give them a four-digit number, according to a Greenwood Police Department report.
Houseworth told police she didn’t know where the car’s registration was, and that she was borrowing the car from a friend. She told police she was planning to return it later that night, the report showed.
The officer called for back-up and looked up the driver’s information. They found an individual with the fake name Houseworth gave, but she had blue eyes and blonde hair. Houseworth has brown eyes and brown hair. Officers requested a Bureau of Motor Vehicles driver’s licence photo for the individual with the fake name, which confirmed Houseworth was not who she said she was, according to the report.
Police deployed a K9, which detected narcotics. They asked Houseworth to get out of the car so they could search her, and she continued to give police the fake name, the report showed.
Another search showed there was a woman named Kay Houseworth who often used the same fake name, and there was a warrant for Houseworth’s arrest. Greenwood police asked the driver if her name was actually Kay Houseworth, and she confirmed it was, according to the report.
Police looked up the car’s license plate and discovered the plate belonged to a different car. When they looked up the car’s vehicle identification number, they discovered it was reported stolen out of Marion County earlier on Monday, the report shows.
Houseworth said she knew the car was stolen, and told police she stole the car on Monday from Indianapolis’ east side. She told police she gave them a fake name due to the warrant for her arrest, according to the report.
The warrant was issued in January, after Houseworth failed to appear in a Hamilton County court on drug-related charges, according to online court records.
Police began to search the stolen car when an officer noticed Houseworth attempting to swallow a plastic baggie, which was later found between the seat cushion and back cushion of her seat. Officers conducted a field test on the the substances in the baggie, which tested positive for meth. They also found a small amount of raw marijuana, the report shows.
The owner of the stolen car arrived on scene and told police he was at the store when it was stolen. The owner had left the car in the store’s parking lot with the keys inside, according to the report.
Houseworth was taken to the Johnson County jail, where she is held without bond.
