One too many drinks led to a Mentmore man thinking his SUV had been stolen, when in reality he had just left it somewhere while he was drunk.
McKinley County Sheriff’s Office’s Deputy Paul Davis Jr. was dispatched to Safeway on U.S. 491 at about 10:45 am on March 22. The caller, Virgil Plummer wanted to file a stolen vehicle report with the sheriff’s office.
When Davis arrived at the scene, he spoke to Plummer. Plummer said he had just gotten out of Gallup Detox and that he was in the process of buying a vehicle from a man named Perez Armando. The car was a black 2011 Chevy Tahoe.
Plummer told the deputy that he had been drinking with some people he didn’t know in his car. The last place Plummer remembered being was at Deadhorse Speedway on State Road 566 in Church Rock, N.M. and he couldn’t remember how he got to Gallup Detox.
Plummer stated that the SUV already had damage to the driver’s side front quarter panel prior to the night before.
Metro Dispatch checked the tow log and said that the SUV had not been towed. But they did find a call for service that had been made at #319 Superman Canyon in Gallup. The Navajo Police had been called about the SUV. It was still at Superman Canyon.
Davis told Plummer where his car was, and he said he would go there. After filing the report at Dispatch, Davis drove to #319 Superman Canyon to see if Plummer had found his SUV.
When he arrived around 11:46 am, Davis saw the black Chevy Tahoe sitting on a hill west of the house. He noticed that the SUV was stuck in soft dirt. There was no one around it.
Davis then met Cecelia Miles. She said the Tahoe had been there all night and that she saw three people she didn’t know carrying some things from it that morning. She saw them head west. She said she called the Navajo Police the night before, but they didn’t answer, so she tried again that morning.
Davis called Plummer to tell him he had found his SUV. When Plummer got there, the two men had to walk a bit to get to the vehicle because there were no roads leading to it. Plummer confirmed it was his Tahoe.
There were no keys in the truck. Davis took photos of the Tahoe and then told Plummer he could leave because his SUV had been found.
By: Molly Adamson
Sun Correspondent
