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A confessed front-end loader thief's tale has come to a dead end, with machinery recovered and the suspect scooped up by Weber County sheriff's detectives.
The rig, a Komatsu PT250-5, was taken on June 22 from a construction site at 3424 S. 2700 W. in West Haven City. The next day, it was spotted in an Ogden residential driveway, and later found abandoned in an Ogden church parking lot.
The picture of the loader was distributed through social media and news sites, and numerous tips came in as a result. On Tuesday, investigators confirmed they had arrested a 32-year-old Ogden man.
The man admitted to having taken the loader, but this was no heavy metal joy ride; he claimed he took the machine to help a friend with a yard excavation project.
He then left the machine in the church parking lot after learning about the publicity.
The loader, undamaged, was returned to its owner.
The suspect faces a summons to court on a third-degree felony charge of wrongful appropriation, the sheriff's office stated.
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