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SALT LAKE CITY -- A Salt Lake City homeowner awoke to police pulling a suspected vehicle thief from a car in the homeowner's backyard.
West Valley City police had been looking for the suspect, Richard Hatch, for several weeks. They say officers spotted him and tried to pull him over around 2 a.m., but he led them on a chase that ended near Sugar House Park.
Hatch ran from the car into a neighborhood. Police brought in a K-9 team to help search for him and found him an hour later hiding in a car parked in someone's backyard near 2200 South and 1700 East.
The homeowner says it was quite a shock. "I was sound asleep dreaming. In my dream I suddenly heard ‘Get out of the car and get your hands in the air; you're under arrest.' I thought that's really not part of my dream," he says.
"Then I woke up," he continues. "I could hear a lot of noise, lights flashing, looked out my bedroom window and some guy has crawled up inside my car. Police were taking him out."
Police pulled Hatch out of the car and took him into custody. They say Hatch is being investigated for vehicle theft, identity theft and several other fraud cases.
