Man arrested for stealing a car just hours after it was returned from being stolen
Feb 1, 2025, 11:07 AM | Updated: 11:10 am

FILE - Handcuffs used at the decommissioned Draper Prison. (KSL TV)
(KSL TV)
SALT LAKE CITY — A car was stolen a second time Friday morning, just hours after its owner recovered it from being taken.
According to the police affidavit, a car dealership owner called South Salt Lake police dispatch, saying he was following someone who took his 2017 Chevrolet Silverado and was following it to Murray.
Dispatch conducted a rapid SOS ping on the owner’s location, and police found the stolen truck and the owner at the Brickgate Apartments in Murray.
According to the affidavit, the owner left the truck at 3684 S. State Street so he could get the keys for it. But when he returned, he saw the car being stolen just hours after it was recovered from being stolen.
The owner told police he followed the truck into the apartment complex. The driver, later identified as Barabas Mopadish, 25, fled on foot toward a railroad.
According to the affidavit, Murray police used a drone to find Mopadish hiding under a tree. Officers found Mopadish and took him into custody without further incident.
Police found the keys to the truck on Mopadish and found his jacket inside the stolen truck.
“During an interview post Miranda, (Mopadish) admitted to driving the truck to deliver it to the Brickgate Apartments and that he knew the truck had been stolen,” the affidavit stated.
According to police, Mopadish had a suspended driver’s license and was a suspect in “multiple, very recent theft incidences involving vehicles.”