ST. GEORGE — A suspect employed as a maintenance worker at a hotel in Springdale was arrested in Ivins on Wednesday after a hotel guest reported that her money and credit card was stolen from her room.
The incident was reported July 6, when a guest reported to a hotel staff member that her credit card and cash had been taken from her room during her stay at the hotel on July 6. That set in motion a month-long investigation by the Springdale Police Department, according to charging documents filed with the court.
Springdale Police Officer Britt Ballard told St. George News they spoke to the guest who said she became aware of the theft when she received an alert on her phone that her credit card had just been used at a gas station in LaVerkin.
She then checked her purse and realized that all of her cash, exactly $280, she said, and her credit card were missing. Then later, the woman told police that her Apple Airpods were also gone, the report states.
She went on to explain she had left her purse in the room when she went out for about 15 minutes, which is when she thought the theft likely occurred.
She also told officers a maintenance employee had been sent to her room to repair the air conditioning unit, and said he was the only other person that could have entered the room during that time period.
Ballard said he was able to identify the maintenance worker as 31-year-old Anthony Ricketts, who was employed at the Springhill Suites by Marriott in Springdale where the incident took place.
During a telephone call the suspect initially denied taking anything from the room, or from anyone’s purse. The suspect called back about 30 minutes later, Ballard said, saying “he needed to come clean” and admitted to using the credit card, but said he had picked it up from the hallway floor of the hotel.
He went on to explain he had recently been released from prison and used the card to purchase gas, which was the charge that sent the alert to the card’s owner, and Ricketts also said he would pay the guest back double the amount that was charged for gas.
Officers would later learn the suspect had spent time in a Wyoming prison, and also had an open misdemeanor drug case filed two weeks before the reported theft at the hotel.
While viewing the surveillance footage obtained from the hotel, Ballard said they could see the suspect leave the guest’s room, but Ricketts never picked anything up from the floor, as he had claimed earlier.
Footage from the gas station captured at the time the credit card was used showed a woman getting gas using a credit card, and upon further investigation officers realized it was the same card reported as stolen from the hotel guest.
Ballard took a photo of the woman to a number of hotels in Springdale, and several witnesses said the woman worked at another hotel in Springdale and was reportedly dating the suspect.
During a telephone call, the woman told Ballard she had used the card, but said she had no idea it was stolen at the time. While the officer said they doubted her story, no charges have been filed against her at the time.
Once the investigation concluded officers obtained a warrant for Rickett’s arrest, who had left his job by then, Ballard said. They received information Ricketts was possibly staying with relatives in Ivins. Officers alerted authorities there.
Santa Clara-Ivins Police Sgt. Reed Briggs said about a week ago, the department had received information that a suspect who was wanted out of Springdale on a theft might be staying in the area.
On Wednesday afternoon, officers found Ricketts at the Ivins address, placed under arrest and transported to jail. He was booked on third-degree felony unlawful acquisition of a financial card and misdemeanor theft with formal charges being filed the following day.
St. George News reached out to Springhill Inn for a comment. The manager stated they were not allowed to comment on any employee-related issues.
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