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SALT LAKE CITY -- Two men are in custody in Ogden after a routine traffic stop turned into something much more bizarre. Their entire backseat was full of meat.
The owner of Moore's Family Restaraunt said as much as $400 worth of meat was stolen. It was then loaded in a Lexus.
Police say there was a family barbecue looming for one of the suspects. Whether that barbecue has anything to do with this is unclear right now.
It's believed the suspects got in through the back door. They broke a window and then perhaps reached down and turned the knob - though it would have been a long reach.
Owner Kelly Moore said the men did appear to tamper with the safe. They were not able to break it open, but did significant damage to the safe itself.
Then they raided the freezer. Moore said the men grabbed one of his garbage cans, loaded it full of meat and used the can to transport the meat to the car.
Brian Paul Stewart and Mikel James Rhoades are the two men in custody. Moore says Mikel Rhoades was a former employee.
Cops are saying great police work by the officers involved. They made the traffic stop uptown from around 4:00 a.m. There was a mechanical problem with the car. From there, investigators determined Brian Paul Stewart was driving on a suspended license. Rhoades was actually wanted on warrants. He was not booked on anything specific to this crime.
Through follow-up and the report of the burglary at the restaurant, police were able to piece together that the men didn't get a good bargain on the meat, as they had claimed. They got the five-finger discount.
"Fortunately, for putting things together on the officers' side from the two different incidences - putting the two together, they were able to recover the property," said Danielle Croyle with the Ogden police.
Stewart was booked on possession of stolen property. The case is being screened for further charges. Police still don't know the motive for all this.
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