A hapless woman house-sitting for her daughter in Brooklyn unwittingly moved a stranger’s Honda for alternate-side parking — because the key worked in that car, too.
“I just opened the door with the key and drove it,” Cheryl Thorpe, 55, told The Post Wednesday. “It was pretty incredible because the key worked.”
They left her with two tasks — move their cars and feed the dog.
“I thought, ‘I can do this,’ ” Thorpe said. “She left me a funny note called ‘The Situation’ about where the cars were and where to move them.”
Thorpe dutifully moved a Fiat, a Honda CRV and a 1993 Honda Accord to spots that would be legal for the April 7 street cleaning — and even sent her daughter a text message assuring that all was well.
But Davis and her pals realized as soon as they got back on April 8 that something was very wrong.
Davis’ friend Deanna said that the Honda that Thorpe had moved didn’t belong to her.
Deanna went to the spot where she had left her car, and it was still sitting there — amazingly without a parking ticket.
But the owner of the car that Thorpe moved was not as lucky.
Emily Hickert, 42, of Cobble Hill, was stunned to think someone had stolen her 21-year-old car while she ate brunch in Red Hook.
She went to a nearby woodworking shop that has a surveillance camera and asked a worker to let her view the footage.
She saw what she thought was a master thief at work.
“In less than 40 seconds she gets in the car and goes,” said Hickert, who filed a police report. “I thought she was a professional.”
Davis, meanwhile, tried to get her mortified mom off the hook by circulating a flier with a photo of the green Honda.
“Looking for the owner who wears a lot of necklaces and potentially enjoys San Pellegrino sodas. I didn’t steal your car but I think my mom may have,” she wrote. “It’s a long story. I’ll explain, but your car is safe and sound.”
Davis also went to the local station house, but cops said they had no report.
Officers finally towed the car on Wednesday and matched up the California license plate to Hickert — who was hit with a $190 fine.
Davis has offered to pay the fine, and Hickert has no hard feelings.
“I’m not upset with her,” she said. “I’m glad it wasn’t a thief. I just didn’t know why anyone would steal a 1993 Honda.”
Honda spokesman Chris Naughton said the chances of one key starting both cars was a “needle in a haystack” for models made in the early 1990s — and insisted that car-key technology is far more advanced now.