A Coalville resident was found and arrested by officers, not long after he was allegedly caught in the act trying to steal a catalytic converter off a vehicle.
The Summit County Sheriff’s Department is investigating to see if the suspect can be tied to similar thefts that have occurred in recent weeks.
Sheriff’s Lt. Andrew Wright said that on Wednesday, November the 13th, at about 4:10 a.m., a resident along Coalville’s Main Street heard a noise and went outside to find the suspect under his vehicle, trying to steal the converter.
The suspect took off, but dropped his wallet, and also left behind a small hand-held saw.
Lt. Wright said the 41-year-old man was later arrested on warrants out of Salt Lake, and is being held there. The Summit County Attorney’s office is reviewing his case for possible charges.
The description of the suspect’s vehicle matches a report they got in early November, when a converter was stolen off a commercial shuttle in lower Silver Creek. Before that, a hunter parked near the rail/trail in Wanship reported a similar theft.
KPCW was informed of a third case, an employee of Blue Sky Ranch who told us he was victimized, also when his vehicle was parked in downtown Wanship.
Meanwhile, the Sheriff’s Department is also reporting they were kept busy by a rash of vehicle burglaries at a condo complex along Bitner Road.
On November 16th, deputies received three separate reports that residents at the Canyon Creek Apartments found their vehicles had been burglarized overnight . The vehicles were all parked outside, and had been left unlocked. They were located near different buildings in the complex.
The items stolen included a backpack, ski goggles, two GPS units, two credit cards, including one that had a declined charge from a Salt Lake Walmart that same morning, and a collection of 200 CD albums.
The same day, officers responded to what may have been a “SWATting” incident. Officers responded at about noon to a report that a man with a knife was threatening homeowners outside an address in Jeremy Ranch.
Lt. Wright said the report came from text messages sent to a Crisis Intervention and Hospital line at the University of Utah and geo-tracking indicated the messages were coming from an area in or around the home.
However, the homeowner, contacted in Salt Lake County, said she didn’t make the report. Her husband, who was home alone at the address, also said he had not sent a message. A search of the surrounding area found no one with a knife.
