ST. GEORGE – A stolen vehicle incident resulted in the arrests of two people Wednesday afternoon.
Police responded to the report of a stolen vehicle Wednesday morning at a business off Riverside Drive.
“A 2018 Toyota Tacoma was left with a local business for repairs,” St. George Police officer Lona Trombley said in an email. “Upon completion it was left in the parking lot to be picked up.”
Security cameras recorded someone getting into the truck around 3 a.m. and driving away. Police were contacted around 8:15 a.m. and took a report. Officers were also notified that a Beretta 9mm pistol with ammunition was under the seat of the stolen truck.
Later that afternoon an employee of the shop the truck had been taken from saw the truck at a nearby storage facility on 270 East and police were contacted.
According to a St. George News reader who passed the area, he saw officers with guns drawn as they closed in on the scene. Trombley said this was in response to the knowledge that the suspect had access to a gun.
“Officers located Doug Belback and a female in the truck and were taken into custody without incident,” Trombley said.
Douglas Wayne Belback, 35, of St. George, matched the description of the man seen in the footage from the security camera. He had a warrants out for his arrest and was charged with second-degree felony for the theft of a vehicle.
The woman, Melissa Ivonne Belback, 42, of Hurricane, claimed she didn’t know the truck was stolen. She also had a warrant for her arrest and was taken into custody as well.
Both were booked into the Washington County Purgatory Correctional Facility.
The handgun was also located.
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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I wonder if the couple knew someone who worked at the garage?
Both had warrants, one had felonies, in a stolen vehicle, and there was a gun under the seat, hmmm…doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see what these two represent. But, the facts and evidence will be the unlimited decision for these two upstanding citizens.
time to stop leaving vehicles unlocked with the keys in them maybe? This town actually seems to have a lot of crime nowadays. At least compared to a few years ago.