KEARNS, Utah – The owner of a car that was stolen used a smartphone to track the vehicle from West Jordan to Kearns, and when police responded they found that car as well as a second stolen vehicle apparently stripped for its parts.
Lt. Bill Robertson of the Unified Police Department said they received a report from West Jordan police around 6:30 p.m. Tuesday that a stolen vehicle may be at an address in the Kearns area.
“The owner of that vehicle had actually made his way to this area off of a ping on his phone,” Robertson said. “And so officers arrived in the area and were able to locate his stolen vehicle.”
Those officers responded to a home in the area of 5000 South and 5100 West, where they conducted a search.
“During that search, officers were able to identify another stolen vehicle that had been pieced out in the backyard,” Robertson said. “A lot of times engines and things are taken out of vehicles and put into other vehicles and things like that, so officers did a great job identifying that second stolen vehicle.”
So far no one has been taken into custody, but the vehicle initially reported stolen out of West Jordan was recovered intact.
Robertson said it’s a bit unusual to find two stolen cars in the same location when one of them is in pieces, and he said that raises the possibility the case is connected to a larger criminal operation.
“This could be a part of a stolen vehicle ring, we don’t know that,” he said. “The investigation is in its early stages and investigators will follow-up.”
