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Four teens questioned in theft of Breckenridge town vehicle

Jane Stebbins

FARMER’S KORNER – Sheriff’s officers turned four local teenagers over to their parents Wednesday afternoon after police detained them on suspicion of stealing a Ford Explorer the week before.

According to Sheriff’s Office reports, a teacher at Summit High School became suspicious when a 15-year-old boy showed him a set of car keys and told the teacher he’d driven a truck to school. The teacher checked with school records and determined the teen wasn’t old enough to have a driver’s license.

After school that day, sheriff’s officers contacted the boy and three other high school students as they were getting out of the truck, which was idling at the motor home park east of the high school. Sheriff’s Officer Rebecca Johnson said in the report that she separated the boys while she waited for assistance from the Sheriff’s Office and Breckenridge law enforcement.



At that point, she noticed a knife under the truck and two car stereos in the bed of the truck.

Officers took the boys to the Sheriff’s Office for questioning and Breckenridge police took the truck – whose vehicle identification number indicated it was a town-owned vehicle – to the town’s impound lot.



All four boys agreed to talk with police. The boys, whose names police would not divulge because of their juvenile status, are all from Silverthorne or Dillon.

When questioned by police, the 15-year-old driver said he saw someone scraping business stickers from a Ford truck outside Blue River Apartments in Silverthorne April 25. The teen said he left the area, but the person – who is not identified by age or name in the report – called him back and said he had a truck for sale for $150. That person allegedly took the boy to the Meadows apartment complex in Dillon Valley to see the Explorer, and the boy paid him $50 for the vehicle.

When the boy got behind the wheel, the person who sold him the truck allegedly said he would kill the teen if he said anything about their transaction. The teen said at that point he thought the truck might have been stolen, but he was afraid to go to police.

Officers requested the district attorney investigate the case as an aggravated motor vehicle theft case.

Police also released the three other boys after questioning indicated they likely didn’t know anything about the truck, the stereo systems or the knife.

Jane Stebbins can be reached at (970) 668-3998 ext. 228 or jstebbins@summitdaily.com.


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