Rockville Centre auto body shop owner arrested

Police say they arrested the owner of an auto body and towing shop in Rockville Centre after she parked her SUV with phony dealer license plates at the Garden City Department of Motor Vehicles office.

According to detectives, Lorraine Christie-Pilitz, 52, the owner of the Autotech Collision body shop on Long Beach Road at the Rockville Centre-Oceanside border, parked her 2003 Honda Element in the lot of the Axinn Avenue DMV office on April 27. Police said that a Department of Motor Vehicles inspector noticed the vehicle and recognized its obviously forged plates. Nassau County police were called and Christie-Pilitz, a Malverne resident, was arrested in the DMV office at 3:30 that afternoon.

Christie-Pilitz was charged with a felony — criminal possession of a forged instrument — and was arraigned the next day in First District Court in Hempstead.