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HERRIMAN — Two Kearns men have been charged with stealing a trailer containing thousands of dollars worth of equipment belonging to the Herriman High School rugby team.
Michael Ray Retone, 34, and Abraham Ancelmo Valencia-Ballestros, 21, were charged Wednesday in 3rd District Court with theft, a second-degree felony. Retone was also charged with two counts of criminal mischief and possession of burglary tools, class B misdemeanors.
The charges come just a few weeks after Retone was arrested and accused of possessing other trailers that were reported stolen from church parking lots.
Early on the morning of March 19, a trailer owned by the Herriman rugby team was stolen from Copper Mountain Middle School, 12106 S. Anthem Drive. The trailer was worth an estimated $2,600. But inside the trailer was approximately $12,000 worth fo rugby gear, according to charging documents.
Surveillance video recorded two men pulling up next to the trailer in a white GMC SUV, attaching the trailer and driving off, the charges state.
"We are desperate to recoup our gear," the team wrote on a GoFundMe page set up shortly after the theft. The post stated that the missing trailer contained 40 rugby balls, four full sets of jerseys, and other items used during practices.
On May 21, Herriman police were called back to the same area after a GMC was spotted in a church parking lot next to the middle school. Surveillance cameras recorded the GMC pulling up to a trailer in the parking lot at 12220 S. 5600 West, followed by a man getting out of the GMC and using bolt cutters to cut the lock off the trailer.
After his arrest, Retone admitted he was attempting to steal the trailer but got scared when he and his partner saw the headlights of the approaching police car and took off, leaving a crowbar and bolt cutters behind, a police affidavit states.
On May 22, several tips led police to Retone's Kearns residence, where police say the rugby trailer was located. After being placed into custody, Retone told detectives that he used a heat gun to remove the Herriman rugby team logo from the trailer, the charges state. He also claimed that he and Ballestros "removed all the rugby equipment but eventually put it back in the trailer," according to the affidavit.
The charges come less than a month after Retone was arrested in connection with a separate case involving stolen trailers. On April 26, Retone was charged with two counts of theft of a trailer, a second-degree felony, for incidents that occurred on April 8.
According to charging documents, on that day, a trailer in a church parking lot at 4980 W. 3285 South was stolen, and then a second one in a parking lot at 7380 W. South Temple was taken.
A third trailer used by a Boy Scout troop at a West Jordan ward of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint was also taken, but was later found for sale on the OfferUp app. The ad led police to a storage area in Herriman where three trailers were found, the charges state.
"I found all three trailers were listed stolen and two of the trailers had been stolen from LDS churches in West Jordan and the other was stolen from an LDS church in West Valley," police wrote in the affidavit.
