Former firefighter sentenced to probation for breaking into Utah County fire station, stealing drugs

A former firefighter has been sentenced to probation for breaking into the Pleasant Grove Fire Department and stealing narcotics from an ambulance.

Brenden James Ivie, 21, was a part-time firefighter with Unified Fire Authority (UFA) and the Lone Peak Fire District before he was arrested on theft- and possession-related charges.

Ivie pleaded guilty in 4th District Court to three counts of burglary, a third-degree felony; two counts of theft, a class B misdemeanor; and two counts of possession or use of a controlled substance, a class A misdemeanor.

On Jan. 22, Ivie was charged with a $1,301 fine and was sentenced to 36 months of probation.

The judge suspended Ivie’s incarceration sentences, which may have have included time in jail and up to 15 years in prison.

Other counts of burglary, theft and possession of a controlled substance were dismissed.

Ivie had been a high school intern at the Pleasant Grove Fire Department a few years ago, according to Deputy Fire Chief Drew Engemann. Lone Peak Fire District fired Ivie on Aug. 12, and the UFA terminated Ivie’s employment Sept. 10 (although spokesman Eric Holmes confirmed that the UFA took Ivie off the station’s schedule when he was arrested).

Between June 10 and Aug. 5, 2017, narcotics and medication disappeared from Pleasant Grove Fire Department ambulances four times. Four boxes of drugs such as fentanyl, diazapam, ketamine, morphine and midazolam were stolen.

Ivie admitted to going into the station through a bathroom window, about 8-10 feet off the ground. On the day of the final burglary, the bathroom window’s glass was broken and the station put up cameras. Surveillance video showed Ivie climbing the pipes up to the window, and he was taken into custody later.

He had an IV line in his arm when he was arrested.

Police found one of the narcotic boxes in Ivie’s car and the rest in his house. Among the stash was a “large amount” of empty, partially full and totally full vials of morphine sulfate, fentanyl, ketamine, diazepam, midazolam, epinephrine, ontansetron, promethazine and diphenhydramine.