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SALT LAKE CITY — A man with an extensive criminal history of theft and burglary has been charged with stealing a vehicle being repaired at a Salt Lake car dealership.
Christian Wayne Pyle, 62, is charged in 3rd District Court with theft of a motor vehicle, a second-degree felony.
In June, a customer went to the Larry H. Miller Ford dealership,1340 S. 500 West, to pick up his Ford Expedition that had been dropped off for repairs only to discover it was no longer there.
Security surveillance video was reviewed and shows Pyle walking into the general manager's office just after 12:30 p.m. on June 25 and removing the Ford's keys from the desk, according to charging documents. "The male is observed unlocking the vehicle and leaving the lot heading east on 1300 South."
Pyle has had more than 30 felony cases filed against him in seven counties in Utah since 1986, mainly for theft or burglary, according to court records. He was arrested in 2013 in a three-county burglary spree. He was named one of the FBI's most wanted shortly after being paroled from prison in 1995. According to the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole, Pyle was last released in 2020 after serving his full sentence on his last conviction.
He also has active warrants out for his arrest in Davis and Utah counties for mainly stealing from cash registers at various stores, according to court documents.
"Pyle has an extensive criminal history of felony theft and burglary. (He) has dozens of felony convictions stemming back to the 1980s. A cursory review of some of the last decade of his crimes shows that the defendant frequently follows the same pattern of business burglaries as he demonstrated in the present offense," say charging documents filed in 2nd District Court in April.
