PLAIN CITY, Utah, Feb. 21, 2019 (Gephardt Daily) — A Plain City man was arrested Thursday, accused of trying to keep police off his trail by making a hoax phone call about a man with a gun.
Kevin Powers, 28, has been booked into Weber County Jail on charges of:
- Receive or transfer of a stolen vehicle, a second-degree felony
- False emergency report, a third-degree felony
- Obstruction of justice, a third-degree felony
- Possession of drug paraphernalia, a class B misdemeanor
According to a news release from the Weber County Sheriff’s Office, a sheriff’s sergeant located a stolen truck near 4500 W. 1600 North at about 7:15 a.m. Thursday.
While the sergeant investigated the stolen truck, Weber Area Dispatch received a call reporting a man with a rifle walking toward Fremont High School.
The sergeant was a block away and got to the school within seconds, as other deputies began to arrive. The high school was placed on lock-out as a precaution.
Deputies did not find a man with a rifle, and the call was apparently a false report.
The sergeant returned to the location of the stolen truck, but the truck was gone. Deputies canvassed the area and found the truck a few miles away, where it had been abandoned.
Detectives went back to the original location of the the truck with possible suspect information, the news release says.
Powers was then arrested at his Plain City home.
“Kevin told investigators that he made the false phone call because he knew it would get an emergency response and he did not want to be linked to the stolen truck,” the news release says.
It adds that police agencies occasionally get false reports, and a “it always entails a quick and massive response by law enforcement, especially when our kids are involved. Those that make these types of reports, once apprehended, face stiffer penalties as this false emergency report charge carries a possible sentence of 0-5 years in the Utah State Prison if convicted.”
