ST. GEORGE — What began with a littering call last week resulted in a felony arrest of a Nevada man after officers responded and found a flatbed trailer that was smashed into a pickup truck.
On Wednesday, officers were dispatched to a report of littering in progress involving a man who was attempting to leave a utility trailer in an area where he was told not to. According to the probable cause statement filed in support of the Nevada man’s arrest, the caller told emergency dispatch that the man refused the caller’s request not to leave the trailer as he continued to unhitch the it from his vehicle, intent on leaving it there. Officers were also advised there was property damage to the asphalt as the driver was attempting to unhitch the trailer.
When officers arrived, they found the driver standing next to a white Ford pickup truck with a white utility trailer still connected to the hitch.
Upon closer inspection, officers noted that a flatbed trailer twas smashed into the driver’s side of the pickup truck stopped in a parking lot, and gauging from the skid marks, chips and other damage to the pavement, it appeared that some type of collision had taken place prior to their arrival.
Washington City Police Chief Jason Williams told St. George News it appeared the pickup rolled back into the flatbed trailer, which “ripped the door off the pickup truck and caused a whole lot of damage to the truck.”
While speaking with police, the driver said he was pulling the white utility trailer to a dealership as instructed, and when asked what happened to the trailer that was smashed into the pickup, the man said “his truck had mechanical issues and rolled into it,” the officer noted in the report.
While police were speaking with the driver, officers ran a registration check on both the truck and trailer, which revealed the utility trailer was reported as stolen.
The driver was detained at that point and identified as 24-year-old Thomas Krachir through his Nevada driver’s license provided to the officers.
Krachir then told police that he got the trailer from another man who agreed to pay him $1,000 to transport it from Wells, Utah, to St. George. He also told officers he did not have the key to the padlock on the utility trailer, and according to the report, he said he had no idea it was stolen, adding that he never confirmed that it belonged to the man who asked him to haul it to St. George.
The truck and flatbed trailer were impounded, and the utility trailer was placed on hold for owner pickup. During an inventory of the truck prior to being picked up, officers found a large revolver underneath the driver’s seat, and when asked, the suspect told officers the gun belonged to his mother.
The report also states that officers located a bank bag on the front passenger seat that allegedly contained several used syringes and glass pipes, along with a number of small plastic baggies with a white powdery residue consistent with methamphetamine. They also found a prescription bottle containing multiple pills of varying shapes and sizes, which the suspect said belonged to a friend.
Officers learned that costs to repair the damage to the parking lot were estimated at $800. The suspect was transported to Purgatory Correctional Facility facing multiple charges, including second-degree felony possession-transfer of a stolen vehicle, a third-degree felony firearm charge, along with two counts of possession of a controlled substance, possession of paraphernalia and criminal mischief, each a misdemeanor.
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