Northwest Iowa — Authorities in O’Brien and Osceola Counties were hip-deep in stolen vehicles Monday morning in a case that spans both counties.
According to Osceola County Sheriff’s Deputy Lieutenant Seth Hoffman, his dispatchers received a call about 6:30 Monday morning from a rural Melvin resident who reported finding a pickup and small trailer stopped on his hog site. Hoffman says when the resident asked the pickup’s driver why he had stopped there, he was told that the vehicle’s brake lights weren’t working, but then drive away. According to Hoffman, the farmer thought the story sounded suspicious, so he called the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office. During the time Hoffman was proceeding to the scene, he says the farmer had walked around to the back side of his building, where he discovered a UTV that did not belong there.
A short time later, an O’Brien County Deputy was dispatched to Highway 59 near the O’Brien/Osceola County line for the report of a pickup and trailer in the ditch. Hoffman says when the O’Brien County Deputy arrived on scene he discovered the trailer in the ditch, which turned out to have been stolen from Melvin, but the pickup was gone.
Later, authorities recovered a pickup in the Dollar General Parking lot in Hartley that had been reported stolen from Melvin. Lieutenant Hoffman says a second pickup was taken from Hartley and recovered in Sanborn. After allegedly dumping the second stolen pickup in Sanborn, the suspect, according to Hoffman, stopped at the Dyno’s station, where his image was captured on the station’s surveillance system.
Hoffman says he collected evidence from the scene in Osceola County that he sent to O’Brien County Deputy Keven Van Meeteren, who, he says, was able to connect it to the two stolen pickups that were recovered Monday morning.
Lieutenant Hoffman says the investigation revealed that the pickup abandoned in Hartley had been stolen from Melvin, as had the recovered trailer and the UTV discovered at the Osceola County hog confinement. And he says it’s confirmed that the pickup abandoned in Sanborn was the same one stolen Monday morning in Hartley.
Authorities ask that if you recognize the individual in the photo on this page, you are encouraged to call either the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office in Sibley at 712-754-2556, or the O’Brien County Sheriff’s Office in Primghar at 712-957-3415.
The subject was last seen in the Sanborn area, and authorities remind you to not leave your vehicle unlocked or leave the keys in the ignition.
Photo courtesy of the O’Brien County Sheriff’s Office
