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Lina Ivette Corchado, 36, of Nordstrand Avenue, turned herself in on Thursday morning on charges of filing a false police report, telling officers that her 2009 Jeep Patriot had been stolen, police said.
Corchado, a school bus driver by trade, said she went out to start her car on the cold morning of Feb. 10, police said. She went inside her home for about a half-hour, and when she returned the Jeep was gone, she told police.
Bridgeport police reported back to Fairfield Police Headquarters that they had located the missing vehicle at the end of Alsace Street, near Burnham Avenue, engulfed in flames. Bridgeport officers were able to recover license plates from the fire, police said.
A Fairfield officer said Corchado had fallen behind on her car payments and filed an insurance claim after the disappearance of her Jeep, police said. But she pulled the claim when police opened an investigation, police said.
Officers pieced together the case during questioning and applied for an arrest warrant on Oct. 17, police said.
Fairfield police charged Corchado with falsely reporting a stolen motor vehicle, second-degree falsely reporting an incident, insurance fraud and conspiracy to commit insurance fraud.
She was released on $30,000 bond and is scheduled to appear in court on Dec. 23.
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