Man staying at W’burg homeless shelter charged with motor vehicle fraud

A North Carolina man, who was staying at a Williamsburg homeless shelter, has agreed to waive extradition back home to answer charges related to failing to return a rented vehicle.

On Feb. 10, Williamsburg Police Lt. Jason Caddell charged Clarence Lee Octetree, 48, of Fuquay Varina, with receiving stolen property over $10,000.

The next day, Chief Wayne Bird served him with a fugitive warrant charging him with motor vehicle rental fraud, which is a felony in North Carolina.

Octetree agreed to waive extradition Thursday afternoon back to North Carolina to answer the charge there.

Williamsburg Public Affairs Officer Shawn Jackson said that on Feb. 9, Constable Jim Thornton and a sheriff’s deputy apparently stopped to assist Octetree, whose vehicle, 2008 black Chevy Cobalt, was stopped along I-75.

The next day, police learned via a belated computer report that the vehicle had been reported stolen and that Octetree was at least temporarily residing at Emergency Christian Ministries, Jackson said.

About 12:30 p.m., Caddell contacted Octetree at the homeless shelter, and arrested him there without incident, police said.
According to his Boncombe County arrest warrant, Octetree allegedly failed to returned the rental vehicle to U Save Auto Rental on Feb. 4.

"They actually contacted him after he failed to bring it back on the return date. He stopped answering the rental company’s phone calls and at that point they reported it stolen," Bird said.

"He had a long history of this. He definitely thought he knew what he was doing," Jackson said. "Fortunately, due to the good working relationship between Williamsburg police and other agencies we were able to wrap this case up."