Cape Cod man arrested after woman found him hiding in her back seat while driving, police say

A Cape Cod man is charged with breaking and entering after Yarmouth police say a woman found him hiding in her back seat while she was driving.

A Yarmouth officer was patrolling near the Route 6 exit ramp just before 1 a.m. Monday when he came across what he thought was a disabled car, police said in a news release.

A woman, who “appeared to be scared and upset,” was standing outside the vehicle and trying to dial 911, according to the release. She told the officer she left her friend’s house and didn’t notice anything unusual until a light came on inside the car while she was driving.

The woman said she looked into the back seat and found a man hiding with a coat pulled over his head, according to police.

“Extremely frightened, she began driving erratically and the man fell out of the open rear door of the car,” Yarmouth police said.

Following a brief investigation, Yarmouth police arrested Jailton Dos Santos, 36, and charged him with breaking and entering into a vehicle in the nighttime.

Tom Rugo, a defense attorney for Dos Santos, told Boston.com that the South Yarmouth man was also reportedly at the friend’s house earlier in the night, and that he was intoxicated at the time of the alleged incident. 

However, “what really happened here is not that clear,” Rugo said.

For example, while Yarmouth police said Dos Santos fell out of the car while the woman drove erratically, Rugo noted that his client had no apparent injuries shortly after. He also said that Dos Santos has no prior criminal convictions. 

“I think there’s more to it than what we see on the face of it,” Rugo said of the case.

Yarmouth police reminded drivers to lock their unattended vehicles, particularly at night.