Police quickly track suspect who snatched running truck from parking lot of Casper bar
CASPER, Wyo. — A man told Casper police that he’d briefly left his Dodge Ram running and unattended in the parking lot of the Backdoor Lounge on New Year’s Eve and had come out of the bar to find it stolen, according to the officer’s affidavit filed in circuit court.
The victim had left an iPad in the truck which allowed them to track the vehicle’s location. The truck was found in a central Casper neighborhood just a short time later and the suspect complied with police and was handcuffed, the report said.
The suspect, a 42-year-old man, reportedly told police he’d been upset that Walgreens had been closed when he went to fill a prescription. He said he got into the vehicle, parked at the central Casper location and waited for police to arrive, the report said.
He said he’d had a pint of vodka during the day and performed poorly on field sobriety tests. A breath test at the jail showed a BAC of .094%, according to the report.
He also reportedly told law enforcement at the jail that he’d stolen the vehicle to go to a holiday party.
The suspect was charged with grand theft for the $35,000 truck and DUI. At his initial appearance last Thursday, he said he had recently been laid off from work at a restaurant and had been living at the Casper Reentry Center while serving out a federal sentence. He is identified as Willis Aaron Center. He said he was originally from Gillette.
Center is presumed innocent unless proven or pleading guilty. Bond was set at $5,000 cash or surety.