Carson City deputies arrest man for allegedly stealing dump truck
Submitted by Jeff Munson on Mon, 07/29/2019 - 10:06am
A 23-year-old transient was arrested Sunday for suspicion of felony grand larceny of a vehicle after allegedly stealing a dump truck, a Carson City sheriff's deputy said.
Chance Higby Banta was taken into custody at 10:13 a.m. in the area of Spring and Gregg streets. According to the arrest report a deputy was dispatched to the area of Stampede and Divot streets in reference to a suspicious person.
Deputies checked the area and responded to Empire Ranch Road and met with a man at the Empire Ranch golf course maintenance building who said his dump truck was stolen but that he recovered it. The vehicle is a 1980 International Dump Truck, valued at between $10,000 to $17,000.
The maintenance man said he was moving dirt on the golf course and drove the truck to the maintenance building to use the restroom and had left the truck on while he was inside. When he came out, the truck was gone. He asked someone in the area if they saw a dump truck and they said it was around the corner on Divot. The man said he ran down the street and saw the vehicle in the area.
He stated he run up to the dump truck and saw a man in a gray shirt sitting inside. He said the truck was stopped and he started yelling at the subject. He said the man tried to get out of the truck and so he pushed on the door to keep the man inside until deputies arrived, according to the arrest report.
The maintenance man said the suspect forced the door open and started running away. He stated he ran after the subject and started taking pictures of the suspect with his phone. He yelled at someone to call for deputies and that's when the suspect was seen by a witness jumping fences, the arrest report states.
The maintenance man recovered the dump truck. When he checked inside the vehicle he saw the suspect had left a red backpack inside. He gave the deputy the backpack and stated he had never seen the suspect before and that the man did not have permission to take the truck.
Deputies located a man matching the description after seeing the photo the maintenance man had taken and were able to confirm it was the same person, identified as Chance Banta. The suspect was read his Miranda rights and said he did not wish to speak, the arrest report states.
The vehicle was recovered. Banta was taken into custody and to jail. At jail the suspect was advised that deputies recovered his backpack from the truck. The arresting deputy asked Banta to describe his backpack. He said it was a red Jansport backpack, which is what was located in the dump truck. The suspect identified the backpack as his. Bail: $25,000.
All information for the crime log (unless otherwise noted) comes from the arrest reports supplied by the Carson City Sheriff's Office, and is considered by law to be public information. All subjects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. The policy of Carson Now is to name anyone who is arrested for a felony offense.
