At about 4 PM Friday, the Summit County sheriff’s office received three reports of burglarized vehicles. Summit County Sheriff’s Lieutenant Andrew Wright said the value of items taken from one of the vehicles added up to thousands of dollars.
“This one is pretty substantial. It's got snow skis, a couple of different pair, each valued at $1,300. Bindings, climbing skins, sunglasses, a ski helmet, shoes, Solomon Alps Carbon turning boots, earbuds. I mean, this one is 1,000’s of dollars’ worth. But it again sounds like because we were able to find this guy, we were able to return all the property back to these people, which that doesn't happen super often.”
The suspect had stolen a car from Salt Lake City and used it to hook up two trailers that were parked in the parking garage. They are owned by a property management company. One had a pressure washer on it and the other a cargo box. The stolen vehicle, trailers, and burglarized items were found in the Holiday Inn Express parking lot on Ute Boulevard.
The suspect used a stolen red suburban to haul the trailers out of the parking garage.
“They also found financial cards inside the suspect's pocket that belonged to one of the victims of a vehicle burglary. The suspect admitted that he borrowed a vehicle from a friend the night prior, drove up to Park City where he was using methamphetamine and bath salts, staying inside the red suburban, he decided to go over to the New Park parking garage to use the bathroom. That's when he started committing these crimes.”
A suspect is a 46-year-old man from Centerville, Utah. He was booked into the county jail on two felony charges and several misdemeanor charges for the burglaries. According to Wright, the man was released after spending about three hours in jail.
“You know, in today's age of pandemic and what-not, we're finding that district court judges are often releasing people if they don't bail out on their own. A lot of cases have the option of bailing. We're also seeing that some district court judges are also releasing them and setting a court date without making them post the bail.”
Wright said all the financial cards, vehicle items, and trailers were recovered. The suspect was not required to post bail.
Wright said it’s always risky to leave things in your car in plain sight. Thieves frequently are active during the holiday shopping period and are looking for easy targets like packages, purses, or other valuables in vehicles.
