Local Artist Desperate To Get Back Possessions, Artwork After Stolen Van Returned
Dec 3, 2019, 7:43 PM | Updated: 9:33 pm
UPDATE: Parker Jones said police contacted him Tuesday night and that his van had been located but everything inside was missing.
“Someone reported it outside of their house in Sugar House after seeing a post,” Jones said. “(The) van is intact but all of my gear, bike, tools, art supplies, paintings, journals are stolen. Probably upwards of $10,000 worth of things gone. (It’s) bittersweet — I have my home back, but missing a lot.”
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – A landscape artist in Salt Lake City is desperate to reclaim his life after he said a thief stole his van.
Parker Jones lived in the van and lost just everything he owns except the clothes on his back Monday afternoon. Now, he’s looking for help to catch the alleged thief.
Jones was doing some artwork on his computer inside Sugar House Coffee Monday afternoon for several hours. When he came outside around 3:30 p.m., his silver 2006 Dodge Sprinter van was gone.
“Maybe someone recognizes this guy, or maybe sees the van in the next few days,” said Jones as he was taping fliers with the suspect’s picture onto poles in Sugar House. “If it’s not already chopped to pieces in some garage.”
Parker Jones was clinging to the hope Tuesday that somebody knows something about the man in the surveillance pictures who stole the van and all of his possessions.
That van was his mobile art studio, his transportation and his home.
“I chose to live in it because I’m a self-employed artist. I work in nature and do a lot of landscape art,” Jones said. “I built it out myself. It is an old school bus.”
Jones moved into it a year ago.
“Being able to live in the van enabled me to spend more time out working on the things that I love while keeping my cost-of-living down,” he said.
It gave him the freedom to draw and paint landscapes across the west.
“I love to go out and hike and then find a really good vista, a good scene and try to capture that,” he said.
That was until a man, seen in the surveillance video wearing bright red shorts in the cold, walked over to his van parked behind Sugar House Coffee.
“Within a couple of minutes, he had broken in and was driving off,” Jones said.
The van had all of his artwork inside.
“Art supplies, journals, sketchbooks, a lot of art,” Jones said.
He also lost all of his clothes and his outdoor gear.
“My snowboards, my mountain bike. I mean even… my bed,” he said.
He also lost his stove, oven and refrigerator.
“Literally, this is what I have left,” he said, waving his arms across his body.
All he has left are the clothes on his back, a day pack, a laptop and his phone. The police arrived Monday and took a report.
“It’s kind of a weird circumstance with it being my home, and everything that I own, is also just gone,” he said.
Tuesday night, Jones said police contacted him Tuesday night and that his van had been located but everything inside was missing.
“Someone reported it outside of their house in Sugar House after seeing a post,” Jones said. “(The) van is intact but all of my gear, bike, tools, art supplies, paintings, journals are stolen. Probably upwards of $10,000 worth of things gone. (It’s) bittersweet — I have my home back, but missing a lot.”
If you have any information on this incident, contact the Salt Lake City Police Department or contact Jones at 651-329-5277.
