Back in early September, we posted a story in our regular Stolen RVs segment on a case from Eagle Mountain, Utah. Seems that on August 23, a pair of cool customers drove into a storage yard, backed up to a Micro Lite trailer, and drove away. Along the way to the scene of the crime, the couple stopped at a nearby convenience store and one of them, a woman, went in for refreshments. She left behind her photo on the store’s security camera system, which may have been the pair’s undoing.
Tip pays off
We posted a picture of the rig, and the woman, and asked readers to tip off the Utah County Sheriff’s office if they knew something. Somebody did—and they tipped off the sheriff’s office. The tip indicated the name of the woman in the security image—one Dana Leigh Conley, age 45. Putting the pieces together, deputies were able to pair her with a man, Matthew Allan Rushton, age 42. Both of the suspects were from Salt Lake City, Utah.
With names in place, deputies started running surveillance on Conley and Rushton. Last Saturday, they followed the two to a fitness center that was under construction in Saratoga Springs, Utah. While Conley sat in the car, Rushton got out and walked into the building—later coming out with something that he hadn’t carried in with him. After he climbed back in the vehicle, Rushton started it up and drove away—but not too far—he and Conley were both in custody.
Tip leads to more than travel trailer
Initially the two were booked into a city jail on charges related to the burglary of the fitness center. But on Sunday, they got another free ride, this time to the Utah County Jail. This time the charges were three counts of possession of a stolen vehicle. Three counts? Remember, the tip that got them in hock was regarding the theft of a stolen RV—just one. But law enforcement says, when Dana Conley was put in the hot seat, she began to sing. She admitted to helping out with stealing the travel trailer—and with the theft of two other utility trailers.
“Those trailers, with a very large quantity of stolen property, were located in a remote area of Utah County near Holdaway Canyon. That is located in the southwest area of Utah County in Cedar Valley, south of Twelve Mile Canyon,” reads a press release from the Utah County Sheriff’s Office. “There was a fourth trailer at that location which Conley said she knew nothing about.”
Keep up your good work!
We don’t know if an RVtravel.com reader was the one who tipped the sheriff’s office. But the case demonstrates that tips can make a big difference in solving crime—and perhaps getting someone’s stolen RV home again. Keep up the good work of regularly scrutinizing the Stolen RV section. You might be able to help close a case!
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Just hope the scum get locked up for a long, long time!
Yep. What he said.