Grand Theft Auto...

...No, I'm not talking about a video game either. What a crazy weekend and a couple of crazy stories. It's a long post, but it's definately good reading......

Thursday afternoon, Jeremy and his business partner Brian were on their way home from work. Brian had a little league game, so they were coming home early that day......around 3 pm. They are currently in the process of moving offices, so on the way home they were going to drop a filing cabinet off at the new office. Brian was driving, and parked the truck on the side of the new building at the beginning of the alley-way. For those of you familiar with Farmington, it's right behind General Supply between Main St. and Broadway. Kaitlin, my sister, works for Jeremy and was at the new office. She could see the bed of the truck from her desk. The guys were only going to be in the office for a minute, so Brian left the truck running (I know, I know......shouldn't have done that). The guys were in the back room for just a minute setting the cabinet. Kaitlin looked up and saw the truck drive off, but assumed it was the guys leaving and that they had gone out the back door. Then she heard both of their voices, so she went out and looked to see the truck barreling down the alley. Someone seriously had just stolen their one and only work truck!!! Kaitlin came back in, went to Jeremy and Brian, and in a calm, cool, and collected voice said, "Ummm guys, someone just drove off in your truck." Shock! Jeremy took off through the front door and starting running down the alley. Kaitlin grabbed her keys and took off to her car, and Brian was left in a daze in the office. Brian immediately called his brother Kyle (an FPD officer) but he didn't answer, so he called 911. In the mean time, Kaitlin caught up to Jeremy, and he jumped in, but by now the truck was no where in sight. Well, since the only way out of the alley is Main or Broadway, Kaitlin opted for Main St. She was right. Jeremy and Kaitlin spotted the truck up in the distance, so she put the pedal to the medal and took off. About at KFC (cross street Butler Ave.) on West Main, they caught up. Jeremy was trying to figure out how to take a picture of the guy with his phone, but couldn't get it to work. (Note: In Jeremy's defense, he got a new smart phone about 2 weeks ago and it is completely different from his old one.) Jeremy caught the guys attention, and pointed to him to pull over. The thief freaked out and took off, cutting in front of Kaitlin, and causing her to swerve to miss hitting him. She followed him down Main St., and then he turned onto Scott Ave. barely making the turn. Danica Patrick, I mean Kaitlin, followed right along and made a sharp turn to stay on his tail. Then, he went through a Mustang gas station onto San Juan Blvd., and of course, so did my sis. He cut across the street into Berg Park, jumped out of the truck (leaving it in neutral rolling toward the fence) and took off into the brush of Berg Park. About this time, Jeremy told Kaitlin to slow down, since there was no escape for the thief in the truck. At the time he was on the phone with 911 giving them a play by play of everything that was happening when he saw the thief leave and the truck still rolling. Jeremy jumped out, told the dispatcher he had to go get his truck, hung up on 911, and ran to the truck to slam on the brake just in time. We didn't need to worry about sending the truck to the body shop.....no crashes into the gate. After the truck was safe and still, 911 called Jeremy back and he explained what was going on. Within about 90 seconds, about 6 officers were there. They searched the area, and got Jeremy's statement, but unfortunately the thief was never found. Berg Park just has too many places to hide and escape in. Lucky for us, Jeremy and Brian are friends with several Farmington Police Officers. Actually, one of our friends in our ward, Justin, was the one who responded to Jeremy's office where Brian was waiting. So, unfortunately the thief got away, but fortunately the truck was recovered without a scratch and we have a good story to tell. Lesson learned.....NEVER leave your vehicle running even for a second unless you want to file an insurance claim.

Now, on to today, Sunday. This morning Wes, my little brother, had to go into work for the morning. As most of you may know, my dad owns an ice business. And since it's hot outside right now, work must go on everyday. Since my dad's calling as Stake President keeps him more than busy on Sunday, Wesley gets to pick up the slack when employee's don't show up. When Wes got to the ice plant, he noticed that the entire fence and gate were trashed. Half of the fence was in the road (Arrington St.) and the gate was completely flat on it's side. He had no idea what had happened! It looked like someone had run over the fence from the inside, but that just didn't make sense because the gate was locked still. It was a mystery?! Maybe someone ran into it, and then moved it around to make it look like it happened from the inside? Or maybe not.....mystery solved! This evening, my dad was sitting at home when he received a phone call asking who he had lent his work truck to. It was a police officer. Hmmmm......what is going on here? Apparently, there was a check point in Farmington today, and two males were pulled over in my dad's old truck. So, last night, someone jumped the fence, hi-jacked my dad's old truck, and took off completely running over the fence and knocking it into the road. What the heck! The truck is really a piece of junk, and is just used for deliveries around town when all the other vehicles are gone. It's really not used too frequently, so it just kind of sits there in the corner of the lot and goes unnoticed. Wesley hadn't noticed it gone, but then again, he wasn't really looking for it.......he was trying to figure out what happened to the gate! So, my dad and Kaitlin (thief chaser) are on their way into my dad's office to meet the cops. Maybe it was the same thief, and he did get caught? We can only hope!

I must express my thanks to the Farmington Police Department for all of their hard work! It is a job that goes unappreciated most of the time, but they put their life on the line to protect the community. So, from the Heslop's and Whipple's....Thanks!

Update - Monday morning: Last night my dad and Kaitlin went in to meet the detectives. The detectives checked out the crime scene, and took pictures of all the footprints, etc. It looks like they might have tried to steal one of my dad's big delivery trucks, but thank goodness they were unsuccessful. That really would have been bad for my dad. The truck was recovered but the front end is trashed due to the thief plowing over the fence in it! It's not really drivable anymore, which stinks. Two intoxicated men were arrested and taken in. Their story was that they bought the truck from my dad's nameless ex-employee (yeah right) and that they smashed up the front when they were sheep-herding on the Rez.......yep, that's what they said! They apparently broke in around 2 am, and had a joy ride all day long on Sunday. The truck was full of food, clothes, and alcohol.....yuck! But, at least they were caught, right!