MeetMe theft

Alfredo Torres III was buying ice cream at a Cleveland gas station for a woman he met on the MeetMe dating app Thursday when the woman and her friend stole his car.

(Alfredo Torres III)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A 33-year-old Cleveland man's ice cream date with a woman he met through a phone app ended Thursday when the woman and her friend stole his SUV.

Alfredo Torres III said he met "Crystal" through the app MeetMe and drove her and her friend to a Kinsman Road gas station about 5 a.m. to buy a pint of ice cream. He and Crystal had spent the morning together.

As he walked out of the store with the ice cream in hand, he noticed his 2004 Ford Escape was gone.

Police found the SUV on East 40th Street near Marginal Road Friday morning, but his cellphone, personal information and a spare set of keys to the SUV were gone.

Torres said the theft was the end of an unusual first date in which Crystal asked him to drive her to the homes of several of her relatives, including her brother who had just been beaten up.

"I thought that was kind of awkward," Torres said in a phone interview. "But I just got a glass of water while they were all yelling about it."

Torres said he started talking with Crystal Wednesday. Her MeetMe profile showed she was a 27-year-old Libra. Torres works at two restaurants and as an Uber driver on his free nights, and agreed to meet her in person after he got off work a little after midnight Thursday.

Torres picked up Crystal, and she asked him to take her to at least three homes on Cleveland's East Side and in Shaker Heights. Torres, who lives on the West Side, said he didn't know exactly where he was because he's not familiar with the East Side.

Torres said Crystal asked him if he would leave her somewhere without a ride each time she wanted to go to a new house.

"I wouldn't leave you, but you sure as heck had no problem leaving me," he said.

At the end of the night, Crystal asked Torres to take her and a friend, who had just turned 22 years old, to the Shell gas station directly across the street from the Fourth District police station for a $3 pint of Blue Bunny butter pecan ice cream.

Crystal asked Torres to leave his cellphone in the SUV while he went inside "so she could get on the internet," he said.

When Torres noticed he had been robbed, he ran back inside and asked the clerk to use the gas station's phone to call police.

After he filed his police report, Torres remembered he left the ice cream on the counter at the gas station. He went back to return it and get his $3 back.

"I don't even like butter pecan ice cream," he said.

The clerk told him a woman took Torres' ice cream from the counter. He couldn't get his money back.

Torres also went onto the woman's MeetMe profile and left a comment to warn others that she had stolen his SUV.

Torres reclaimed his SUV Friday afternoon. But his cellphone, title, registration, banking information and pay stubs had been stolen, and the inside of the SUV was trashed, he said. An empty can of Genessee and a Black and Mild wrapper were left in a plastic bag on the floorboards.

Cleveland police are investigating the theft.