Idaho Falls man wants your help finding person who stole his vehicle

Someone stole a red 2005 Nissan Titan out of the Idaho Falls Temple parking lot Friday. Watch the surveillance footage in the video above. | Ryan Welker

IDAHO FALLS – An Idaho Falls man wants your help finding out who stole his truck.

Ryan Welker tells EastIdahoNews.com his grandfather’s red 2005 Nissan Titan was stolen around 10:30 a.m. Friday. His car was locked and he had his keys with him at the time.

He says his grandfather, Dean, was walking out of the Idaho Falls Temple on Memorial Drive towards the parking lot. When he got to the spot where he’d parked his pickup, it wasn’t there.

“He started calling his family members and asked if they’d borrowed his truck, by chance,” Ryan says.

After learning no one had borrowed it, Dean went back inside the temple and looked at security footage. Surveillance footage shows someone getting out of a white minivan and walking towards the pickup.

“It looks like they had a clipboard with papers on it,” says Ryan. “The person just hops out, opens the door, hops in the truck, sits there with the truck door open for about 30 seconds. The truck fires up and off they drive.”

Exactly how the suspect was able to unlock the pickup and get it started is unclear. Ryan thinks they had a programmed key fob or something similar to break into it. The entire ordeal took less than two minutes and the person responsible did not appear to damage the pickup in any way.

Ryan says his grandpa had recently paid off the truck and had taken really good care of it, which makes the theft particularly disheartening.

Ryan and his family have filed a police report.

Idaho Falls Police Department spokeswoman Jessica Clements says the vehicle was reported stolen around 12:30 p.m. Friday after it was stolen out of the Temple’s south parking lot. Clements did not know the suspect’s license plate number, but the officer who filed the report described their vehicle as a light-colored Nissan Quest.

“We are actively investigating and trying to find the suspect. If anyone sees it or has any information, let us know,” Clements says.

The Idaho Falls Police Department can be reached at (208) 529-1200. You can also report anonymously through Crimestoppers. Ryan is also asking anyone who sees it to give him a call at (208) 270-0001.

“I’ve never really noticed any red Titans driving around, but now that I’m looking for one all the time, I’ve noticed a handful over the last few days. We definitely don’t want a bunch of people that rightfully own their vehicles getting pulled over,” says Ryan.

Watch the surveillance footage in the video player above.

The post Idaho Falls man wants your help finding person who stole his vehicle appeared first on East Idaho News.

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