Pasco movie date ends with stolen car

WESLEY CHAPEL — A man and a woman were watching a movie together at Cobb Theatre last week when he asked for her keys.

He wanted to get something from the car, he said. The man went outside, authorities said, and never came back.

She called him.

He laughed.

"I stole your car," said Michael Pratt, a 27-year-old from New Port Richey, according to the Pasco Sheriff's Office.

He hung up.

The victim, who is 35, lives in Zephyrhills and referred to Pratt as a friend in a report. The car, a silver 2012 Ford Focus, was a rental. The woman told investigators she tried to call Pratt for two days before she called the Sheriff's Office for help.

Pratt called her four days after the movie outing and said he dumped the car in a Walmart parking lot in New Port Richey, authorities said. Deputies found the car and Pratt was arrested Wednesday. He is charged with grand theft of a motor vehicle. Pratt previously served more than a year in prison for the same charge, as well as fraud, grand theft, uttering forged bills and failing to return rental property.

He is being held at the Pasco jail in lieu of $5,000 bail.