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HERRIMAN — Police say they arrested a convicted sex offender this week in Herriman after they allegedly found him in a vehicle with a 15-year-old boy.
Phillip Joseph Reed, 33, of Lindon, was taken into custody Sunday for investigation of enticing a minor.
About 11:30 p.m., a Herriman police officer doing a routine patrol came across what he thought was an unoccupied Jeep Cherokee near 14850 S. Juniper Bend Drive. But when the officer put a spotlight on the vehicle, a boy quickly got out of the back passenger door and into the front passenger seat, according to a Salt Lake County Jail report.
"The rear of the vehicle contained a sheet spread out, pillows, blankets and various items of clothing were strewn about," according to an officer's observation noted in the report.
After questioning the two people in the Jeep, the officer learned that Reed allegedly met a 15-year-old Herriman boy on the app Grindr and they had had four meetings, the report states.
In 2013, Reed was convicted of five counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, a second-degree felony, after police found child pornography on some of his electronic devices at his home in Lindon. He was given a suspended prison sentence, placed on probation and put on the Utah Sex Offender Registry.
