BENSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — When Joseph Sherbourne let his friend borrow his car in December, he thought he'd be right back. Three days pass and nothing.
No car. No friend.
Sherbourne said one morning in December the friend asked if he could borrow the car to run an errand. He didn't say where he was going or when he thought he'd be back. Sherbourne assumed it was a short trip.
“I’ didn’t see it coming," Sherbourne said. "I thought I could trust him because he knew that my car was like the one thing I actually cared about the most.”
He was introduced to this friend by his mother, April Adams. She says she considered him her best friend and holds guilt because her best friend took her son's car.
“Technically I’m blaming it all on me," Adams said. "It was my friend that I introduced my kid to. So in the end result, it is my fault.”
On Dec. 14, 2022, the car and the friend were found Naco, Arizona. According to the notice of Seizure from border patrol to the family, the car was found taken because of "Transportation of Aliens Within the United States." KGUN 9 obtained a copy of the letter from the border patrol to Adams from the family.
Adams said she and Sherbourne were notified of the friend's arrest by his sister when she evicted them from the house they were staying with the friend in. Once Adams and Sherbourne were notified of what happened they began working with border patrol to get their car back. It took months because of the investigation and according to Adams, all communication was done through the mail.
Despite being a slow process, the biggest inconvenience to the family was not having reliable transportation.
“I’m currently like still fighting cancer," Sherbourne said. "And so I have to get up to Tucson to go to appointments and stuff and I can’t do that with a reliable vehicle.”
According to the mother and son, the car that was impounded for three months was the family's most dependable mode of transportation. They said it cost them more than $1,100 on Monday to get it out of the impound lot. Now that they have it back they will be able to start going back to their doctors' appointments.
As for the friend, he was released from federal prison on Monday after pleading to a misdemeanor deal. He wasn't convicted of smuggling.
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Alexis Ramanjulu is a reporter in Cochise County for KGUN 9. She began her journalism career reporting for the Herald/Review in Sierra Vista, which she also calls home. Share your story ideas with Alexis by emailing alexis.ramanjulu@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook.
