How a mom accidentally stole a car

(CNN) — What started out as a simple mother-daughter favor in New York City ended up as grand theft auto. Well, kind of.

But neither Nekisia Davis or her mother Cheryl Thorpe are behind bars after police helped them sort out the mess.

You see, Thorpe managed to steal a 21-year-old car by mistake, CNN affiliate WABC reported.

It was an innocent enough mistake.

While Davis and two of her friends were heading off on an extended weekend, Thorpe agreed to move their cars, which were parked in Brooklyn, so they wouldn’t get ticketed.

Proud of herself after moving three cars, Thorpe texted her daughter, “all the cars were successfully moved, yay, so proud of myself.”

No problem, right? Wrong.

When the ladies returned home they spotted the problem. One of the women couldn’t find her car.

Thorpe was convinced she’d moved the right one. She even showed the women the keys she’d used.

The keys were right, but the 1993 green Honda Accord wasn’t.

The women soon found the car in the same place where it was parked at the beginning of the weekend.

Great news, but now they had an extra car that didn’t belong to them.

But whose car was it?

Davis decided to make a flier that would hopefully catch the owner’s attention. “I didn’t steal your car but I think my mom may have,” it read. “It’s a long story. I’ll explain.”

Soon the flier was on Instagram and attracting lots of attention. But it was the police that ultimately reunited the car with its owner after a stolen vehicle report was filed.

Because surveillance video showed Thorpe making a quick getaway, the owner of the other green Honda Accord, Emilee Hickert, told WABC that she thought her car had been taken by a “professional.” She said she was happy to have it back.

But how was Thorpe able to open and operate the car, using the key from another? A Honda rep called it a “rare” occurrence that the keys happened to match up.