Woman connects crime to man accused of jumping onto moving train to escape police

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The man who is accused of fleeing police in a stolen car before jumping onto a moving train to escape on July 19 is facing new charges after he was accused of stealing a different car the day before, according to police.

That car’s owner helped police connect William Mason to the two crimes, police said.

[PAST ARTICLE: Suspect seen jumping on train to escape police, rearrested in court]

The woman said the day before that alleged chase, her boyfriend stopped at a convenience store on West Boulevard to get food.

"Go to jail. Serve something," the woman, who did not want to be identified, said.

"Go outside and your car is gone,” she said. “Someone is driving off with your car."

She said Mason found her boyfriend's cellphone inside the car and made calls and sent texts.

She works for a cellphone company and knew quickly how to get the call history and the names associated with the phone numbers, then she checked Facebook.

"I saw a picture of him on someone else's page," she said.

It matched the image of the man captured by a security camera of a man stealing the car.

"And I found him," the woman said.

(Mason)

She said she identified her suspect in an hour and a half, told police, then went back to Facebook and posted his picture with a warning.

"To keep a lookout so it wouldn't happen to another person," she said.

Some of her friends called her after they said they saw Mason turn himself in for leading police on a chase in a stolen car.

"As soon as they saw the chase yesterday, that's when they informed me, 'Hey, they caught the guy,’" she said.

Once police connected Mason to her boyfriend's car theft, they served him the warrant in court.

"It's crazy,” she said. “You just go take away (from) somebody that just work so hard for something, not caring not nothing."

The car still hasn't been recovered, but the woman is satisfied that Mason is in jail.

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