ST. GEORGE — Two Santa Clara men were taken into custody Sunday morning after a bystander flagged an officer down at a Walmart and reported a man carrying tools in the parking lot peering at vehicles.
According to charging documents filed with the court, the incident started when a patrol officer was flagged down by a woman at the Walmart store on Pioneer Road in St. George who said there was a man wearing all black walking through the parking lot carrying tools as he circled a number of cars, acting “very suspicious.”
The man, identified as 30-year-old Brock Sudbury, was located shortly after and told police he was pulling a trailer and was looking for a ball hitch that would fit his vehicle, explaining that the one currently on the pickup was the wrong size.
He also stated he needed to fix the lights on the trailer so they would work with his pickup and pointed the officer to the trailer located at the other end of the parking lot.
The officer met the suspect at the pickup and discovered another male, later identified as Jory Nielson, 28, of Santa Clara, who was working on the vehicle that Sudbury stated belonged to him.
The officer stated in his report that Sudbury had told him minutes before that he was towing the trailer alone, one of a number of inconsistencies that would come to light while speaking to the suspects.
The officer ran the license plate on the trailer, which returned with a different individual’s name. At this point, Sudbury told police he borrowed the trailer “from someone named Andrew” but that he did not have the last name, nor did he have the key to unlock the trailer.
The officer obtained the registered owner’s name and contact number, and during a telephone call the owner told police the trailer was supposed to be parked at a job site in st. George.
The owner responded to Walmart and identified the trailer and its contents as belonging to him.
According to police, the trailer and the equipment contained inside was valued at more than $15,000.
While speaking with police, Sudbury reportedly told the officer that he took the trailer from a construction site and admitted that he didn’t know who the trailer belonged to.
Both suspects were taken into custody and transported to Purgatory Correctional Facility where they were each booked on two second-degree felony charges, including theft and receiving a stolen vehicle, as the trailer and its contents were valued at more than $5,000 each.
During the booking process, both men were searched, at which point correctional officers found what appeared to be heroin and paraphernalia in Nielson’s possession, which tacked on additional charges of drug and paraphernalia possession, charges that were enhanced since the items were brought into a correctional facility.
Charges were filed against both suspects on Monday. Sudbury remains in custody on $20,500 bail, while Nielson’s bail was set at $23,220.
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