UTAH COUNTY, Utah — According to www.gephardtdaily.com, David Ryan Michaelis, 42, was arrested for allegedly stealing electronics from Walmart and then trying to stash them inside a carwash.
At around 5:10 a.m., officers responded to a call about a male pushing a retail stocking cart piled with boxes over his head down a street and a sidewalk, the article continued.
The caller told officers that Michaels entered the tunnel of the Wiggy Wash at 1662 W. 500 South in Springville with the cart and reappeared moments later with the cart but missing several boxes, the article noted.
Officers made contact with Michaelis behind the Wiggy Wash, who identified himself, and read his Miranda rights; afterwards, the officers showed him the merchandise hidden in the tunnel of the wash, where he was asked about them, the article noted.
Michaelis claimed the items were already there, the article stated.
“After telling him we knew he dropped the items there, he emphatically told us that he had not stolen the high-end electronic merchandise located in the Wiggy Wash drive-through, but told us that he had stolen items from Walmart in his backpack that he had on when we first contacted him,” the official police statement said.
Officers found two pipes and a crystal substance consistent with methamphetamine on Michaelis’ person, which he admitted was “clear,” a common street reference to meth, the article noted.
Officers contacted Walmart, which retrieved its merchandise — valued over $5,000 — from the wash, the article added.
Michaelis faces charges of retail theft, a second-degree felony; possession of a controlled substance, a class A misdemeanor; and use or possession of drug paraphernalia, a class B misdemeanor, and he was taken to Utah County Jail with no bail, the article concluded.
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