But officer, how can I steal my own car?

A Rhode Island woman was jailed Saturday after she allegedly stole her vehicle from the Hilton Head Island company that towed it there a day earlier.

When deputies spoke to the owner of D & M Towing on Saturday, he told them he had towed a 2003 silver Ford Taurus to the lot around 2:30 p.m. Friday, according to a Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office report.

The car’s owner called the company Saturday morning before coming to the business to retrieve her belongings from the vehicle, the report said.

The lot owner left around 4:30 p.m. and returned when he received a phone call from a neighbor who said he’d had heard a loud bang and saw a silver vehicle driving out of the compound, the report said.

The business owner found his chain link fence on the ground. It appeared to have been driven over by a vehicle, the report said.

Around 5:15 p.m., a deputy responded a suspicious vehicle call in first block of Capital Drive on Hilton Head and found the Taurus parked on the street and the woman asleep inside, the report said.

Worried she might try to drive away, deputies placed a spike strip in front of the vehicle before waking the woman.

She was handcuffed but complained that since she owned the car, she did not know why she was being arrested, the report said.

When asked if she took her vehicle from the lot, the woman accused the tow company of stealing her car and said she would not say more without an attorney present.

Deputies found multiple scratch marks on the side of the vehicle consistent with striking the fence, the report said.

The car’s owner was charged with malicious injury to property, a misdemeanor.

This story was originally published June 21, 2016 at 3:11 PM with the headline "But officer, how can I steal my own car?."