While on patrol in the Medfra Street area of Mountain View, an alert officer spotted a person slumped over the wheel of a black 2001 Chevy pickup and stopped to investigate. That contact would result in two stolen vehicles and a firearm being recovered and a suspect taken into custody and charges filed on Sunday.

At 7:58 AM on December 18, an officer spotted the driver and running vehicle on the side of Medfra Street near the intersection with E 7th Avenue and ran the plates. The information came back showing the black Chevy pickup had been reported stolen from a hotel parking lot on the 1000-block of 12th Avenue at 8:28 pm on December 11th.

More patrol vehicles responded to the scene and blocked in the Chevy. As they were doing so, the driver, now identified as 26-year-old Tyler J. Abbott,  woke up, put the vehicle in gear, and quickly accelerated in reverse crashing into a gray 2001 Chevy Silverado pickup parked and unoccupied behind Abbott. That initial collision pushed the Silverado into an unoccupied 1998 Ford Expedition. Even more patrol vehicles arrived at the scene.

Multiple commands to exit the vehicle were given, and Abbott, unable to escape in the vehicle, eventually climbed out of the black pickup and was taken into custody. He was transported to the department for questioning by detectives.

During the investigation, a firearm, that had been reported stolen several months before on February 7th, was found under the driver’s seat. The owner had told police that the firearm, was in the glove box of a parked and locked vehicle on the 2400-block of Spenard. It was determined that the firearm had been stolen nine days earlier when the thief broke out a window to gain access.

Further investigation would reveal that the Silverado that was backed into, had been stolen sometime since the night before. The officers found this out when they contacted the vehicle’s owner to inform her that her vehicle had been involved in a collision . The owner told officers that she was unaware that her vehicle, which had been parked on the 5200-block of the Old Seward Highway the previous night, had been stolen.

The investigation would find that the Silverado’s lock had been “punched to gain access and that the ignitions of both pickups had been tampered with and damaged.

Following the detective interview, Abbott was charged with Vehicle Theft I, three counts of Violation Conditions of Release, Fail to Stop, Theft II, Criminal Mischief III, and Resisting arrest. He was remanded to the Anchorage Jail on the charges.

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