ST. GEORGE — An alert officer, a license plate check and a call to the Los Angeles Police Department in California led to the recovery of a rental car reported as stolen and a felony arrest.
An officer in the parking lot of a fast food restaurant on North Red Cliffs Drive in St. George, shortly after 9:30 p.m. July 19, ran a registration check on a California license plate that returned showing the car was reported as stolen out of Southern California.
Once the report was confirmed, officers contacted the Los Angeles Police Department’s North Hollywood Division, and according the report, authorities there that the car was listed as stolen in June.
The report also states that officers also verified that the car was rented in April, and was due back at the car rental agency the following month.
Several weeks later, with the car still unreturned, the rental agency issued a demand to return notice and then contacted authorities to report the car as stolen in June.
The name on the rental contract was listed as 45-year-old Andre Cobbs, a resident of California, who was confirmed to be the driver in the parking lot on Red Hills Parkway by his driver’s license issued out of North Carolina that was later provided to police.
While speaking with authorities, the suspect said he had extended the rental contract several times, but when asked, he was unable to provide any proof of the extensions, according to the report.
The officer also noted the suspect came across an email with a demand notice on June 21, and then “quickly scrolled past it.”
While conducting an inventory of the vehicle prior to impound, officers located a hard-copy of the demand notice that was recovered from the driver’s side door.
The suspect was arrested and transported to Purgatory Correctional Facility facing second-degree felony charge of receiving or transferring a stolen vehicle, while the car was towed to an impound yard while arrangements could be made for its return to California.
This report is based on statements from court records, police or other responders and may not contain the full scope of findings. Persons arrested or charged are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law or as otherwise decided by a trier-of-fact.
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