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Man arrested after seeking towed car
Mar 6, 2007


By Maureen Boyle, Enterprise staff writer

BROCKTON — Jose Gomes went to the police station to pick up his towed car.

He wound up getting picked up by police instead.

The 40-year-old man was arrested after, police say, he showed officers a bogus driver's license and a fingerprint check revealed he was a convicted felon deported to Brazil by federal authorities in 2002.

Gomes was arrested Saturday after he went to police headquarters to find out how he could get back his impounded car.

Officer Scott Uhlman said the car was impounded earlier after another man, who had a bogus driver's license, was stopped by police.

The car was towed, and Gomes went to the police station trying to figure out where it was and how he could retrieve it, Uhlman said.

But there was a problem.

The driver's license Gomes showed police to prove his identity was bogus and when officer Kevin Amaral ran the man's fingerprints through the FBI data base it showed he had been deported May 1, 2002.

“He was put on a plane and deported back to Brazil,” Uhlman said. “There was no record of any legal re-entry.”

Gomes was charged with uttering a counterfeit document and trespassing.

“The element of trespassing was that he has no lawful purpose in this country,” Uhlman said.

And the car?

It's still impounded.