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ST. GEORGE – A call to police from an alert citizen about a suspicious person led to the arrest of a man found with a stolen car stuck in a sandbank of the Virgin River.
A resident was out flying a drone up and down the Virgin River about 1 p.m. Tuesday when he saw a man and a vehicle down in the riverbed in the Bloomington area, St. George Police Sgt. Tyler Cowan said.
“All the property was kind of just drug out from the driver’s seat, laying on the ground,” Cowan said. “It just didn’t look right to him so he called the police.”
As police were making contact with the driver, they were notified by dispatch that the car had been reported stolen, Cowan said.
Spencer Troy Hafen, 51, of Santa Clara, was arrested on the spot, Cowan said. Hafen is being held in the Purgatory Correctional Facility on several charges including possession of drugs and drug paraphernalia and theft.
