Man charged with paying taxes in stolen car

PLATTE CITY, Mo. (AP) -- A 38-year-old man is charged with driving a stolen vehicle to the Platte County Courthouse to pay his personal property taxes.

The Kansas City Star reports that Shawn Simmer of Platte City was charged Friday with first-degree tampering with a motor vehicle. No attorney is listed for him in online court records.

The Platte County sheriff's office said Simmer was in the courthouse in Platte City paying his taxes Thursday when a deputy spotted a lost cellphone on the ground near the car. In an effort to identify the phone's owner, the deputy called in the car's license plate number to dispatchers and discovered the 1985 vehicle was stolen.

When Simmer started to drive away, he was arrested.