WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah, June 7, 2021 (Gephardt Daily) — A 55-year-old man has been booked into jail after police say he led them on a moderate-speed chase in a stolen rental truck.
Suspect Phillip Mobley was taken into custody about an hour and 13 minutes after he drove off with the truck, Lt. S. Burke, West Valley City Police Department, told Gephardt Daily.
“It was a stolen Penske truck that was actually taken from the loading dock from a post office in Salt Lake City,” Burke said. That post office is at 1760 W. 2100 South, he said.
The truck contained mail, and a man was in the back unloading the cargo, Burke said.
“He felt the truck move and thought he forgot to set the parking brake,” Burke said. “He jumped out, and he saw a man in the front, starting to drive away.
Salt Lake City Police officers located the truck in West Valley City, where WVCPD officers joined the effort to stop the truck and driver.
“It didn’t stop,” Burke said of the truck. “It got on the freeway and went to California Avenue. We tried to spike it there, but it didn’t work on the back tires because the rubber was so thick.”
The truck got onto State Route 201, heading west.
“We pulled our guys off, hoping the guy would abandon the truck,” Burke said. “Unified Police spiked it successfully twice, but the guy went to Redwood Road and drove south until the front tire fell completely off.”
That happened at about 6900 South and Redwood Road, Burke said.
“Then he tried to flee on foot until one of the K-9s apprehended him.” Mobley suffered a dog bite wound to his calf, Burke said.
“The strange thing was he never went over the speed limit,” Burke said. “He stopped at every red light. He signaled before he turned.
“He even told us he has done this before. He just barely got out of jail. Told said he didn’t want to go back to jail. I’m thinking ‘If you don’t want to go back, why are you doing what you are doing?'”
As of 11 p.m., Mobley was not yet registered into the Salt Lake County Jail inmate database.
