Passenger Gets a Rude Awakening

Jewell Chapman woke up from a back seat nap early Saturday morning thinking her friend was behind the wheel of the Cadillac. Instead, the Huntington Beach woman was face to face with a stranger--and a car thief.

“I don’t know who was more scared, me or him,” she said.

Chapman, 42, said she went to Hollywood on Friday with Robert Messersmith, 55, of San Juan Capistrano. Messersmith was hired to work the outdoor lights at the premiere of the movie “Punchline” at Mann’s Chinese Theatre.

When Chapman got tired at about 11:30 p.m., she went to sleep on the back seat of Messersmith’s 1979 silver Cadillac. When his work was done, Messersmith drove the Cadillac, which was hauling a trailer, to La Canada, where he unloaded equipment. Then he drove back to the theater. By this time, it was about 2:30 a.m.

While Messersmith went inside the theater for a few moments, a man jumped into the car and sped away. Near the intersection of Hollywood and Sunset boulevards, Chapman awoke and sat up to talk to the driver.

Both driver and passenger were astonished.

“I told the guy to stop the car,” Chapman said. “He told me, ‘Your friend told me to drive it around the block.’ ”

A disbelieving Chapman persuaded him to stop and close the trunk, which was open when he took the car. When the driver obliged, Chapman jumped into the front seat and drove off.

She called police from the car phone and drove to a nearby gas station, where police and Messersmith met her.

“I was relieved to see my friend,” Chapman said. “I was scared for my friend because I had no idea how long I had been in the car asleep.”

The car thief was not found, Hollywood police said Saturday.