Facebook post helps locate stolen trailer
Mar 29, 2018, 5:34 PM | Updated: Feb 13, 2023, 2:44 pm
WEST JORDAN — We all do it. Sharing and liking posts on social media sites. Now, thanks to a lot of people doing just that, police were able to solve a crime in Salt Lake County. Credit this one to a lot of friends on Facebook and a Good Samaritan who just happened to be in the right place at the right time this past Tuesday.
When Adam Archer walked out of his West Jordan home on Monday morning, he noticed something was missing from his driveway.
“No trailer sitting out there. Pretty disappointed. I’m on my way to work and no trailer is parked in front of the house,” Archer said.
About 1:30 Monday morning, someone hooked the trailer up to a truck and hauled it away. Archer called West Jordan police, and his wife went to social media.
“Well my wife made a post on Facebook and it kind of took off like wildfire.”
Soon, photos of the 36-foot long trailer were being shared by friends and acquaintances, even the West Jordan Police Department posted about it on its Facebook page.
Sgt. J.C. Holt, who handles the department’s Facebook page, kept an eye on that post and saw a comment that caught his eye on Tuesday night.
“Somebody said ‘Hey, I think that trailer that was stolen is in front of me right now’, and he was posting pictures,” Sgt Holt said.
The photos were posted by Kye Pope, a real estate broker. He had previously seen other Facebook posts about the trailer.
“I was coming back from getting gas and I looked to the right and here comes a trailer that looked exactly like it, so I pulled over,” Pope said.
Pope followed the trailer for about a half an hour through the Sandy and Draper areas. He said he knew the driver was aware he was being followed, so Pope called 911.
“They said, ‘What’s your emergency’ and I said, ‘I think I’m behind a stolen trailer that one of my friends posted on Facebook. I’m following him and he’s acting weird.’”
Pope kept the police updated on his location and within a few minutes Draper officers arrived and arrested two people. The trailer is now back in Adam Archer’s driveway.
“There was a little bit of damage. Thankfully not a ton. They did break all the locks out,” Archer said.
He thought that finding the trailer or getting it returned was a long shot. But social media sharing and a Good Samaritan paying attention brought it back.
“That’s basically how we found the trailer. If it wasn’t for people sharing it, we never would have got it,” he said.
