GRAYVILLE, Ill. - A rural Grayville resident got a surprise Friday morning when he went out to his barn and found a damaged SUV parked in it.
Rick Davis called the White County Sheriff’s Office on the morning of November 4 to report that there was a maroon SUV parked in his barn located on County Road 2400 North not far from 1275 E; Deputy Randy Graves responded at about 8:15 a.m.
Davis advised that the vehicle wasn’t his, so Graves ran a VIN check and learned that it had been stolen from a location in Mt. Vernon, Indiana, across the river from White County.
Not only was it reported stolen, but the SUV was filthy, and had sustained damage. Parked in the rear of the barn, Graves reported that it had been pulled in “as if someone was trying to hide it.” The rear window of the vehicle was broken out; the front clip of the vehicle was pulled halfway off; the license plate had been removed, and the vehicle was “very dirty.
“It seemed as if someone had tried to destroy the vehicle,” Graves noted in his report.
The SUV was towed from the scene by M&S Towing and was taken to a locked storage unit. Mt. Vernon police were contacted and indicated they’d be responsible for processing it.
Police records showed that the SUV belonged to a Chet A. Johnson of Mt. Vernon, Indiana.