A bizarre cross-country road trip involving a stolen sports car, roadside panhandling, and an unexpectedly useful diary ends abruptly in rural Colorado when a deputy discovers something that simply doesn’t make sense.
The case began on March 10 when employees at a grocery store in Craig, Colorado, reported to authorities that a young woman was allegedly demanding money from customers and causing a disturbance, according to a report from the Moffat County Sheriff’s Office.
The store, a branch of City Market in the northwest Colorado town, reportedly grew concerned about the situation and called 911.
Image source: Google Maps.
When a sheriff’s lieutenant arrived on the scene, nothing seemed particularly out of the ordinary. The woman, later identified as 21-year-old Fallon Frederick, told the deputy she was in trouble and needed help getting back to her mother.
Authorities later said the officer, described in an official news release as a “kind soul,” even gave her a few dollars after hearing her story.
But a moment later, the situation took an unexpected turn.
A very expensive sports car and stolen license plates
After leaving the store, Frederick walked across the parking lot and climbed into the passenger seat of what he described as a “very expensive sports car.” It turned out that “that very expensive sports car” was driven by her boyfriend Neo Gabrielsen, also 21.
Photo credit: Moffat County Sheriff’s Office/Facebook.
The optics immediately aroused suspicion. People who are down on their luck don’t usually climb into high-performance machines that cost tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Out of curiosity, the deputy decided to check the car’s license plate.
The result quickly turned a strange situation into a criminal investigation. The license plate was returned to a car that had been reported stolen out of Washington County, Oregon. Authorities said the theft occurred amid what investigators described as “suspected violent circumstances.”
After the vehicle exited the parking lot, law enforcement officers immediately conducted a traffic stop. The parking incident quickly escalated. During this encounter, a police K9 sniffed around the vehicle and alerted officers to the presence of drugs. A search of the car turned up drug paraphernalia, which later tested positive for fentanyl, according to authorities.
Diary details a transnational crime spree
The most unusual find, however, wasn’t the drugs or stolen cars. That’s a diary.
Photo credit: Moffat County Sheriff’s Office/Facebook.
Investigators found a personal diary belonging to Frederick inside the car. The notebook documented the couple’s journey through multiple states, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
In the entry, Frederick allegedly described how the two traveled across the country, asking strangers for money along the way.
In other words, investigators say the couple was actually using a stolen sports car to fund road trips while posing as people in need.
Not the actual car/Image credit: Porsche.
Law enforcement officials say the diary is one of the most useful pieces of evidence in the case. The entries reportedly outlined travel routes and encounters with the people who gave them money, effectively creating a timeline of the pair’s journey.
Charged with car theft and awaiting extradition
Following the stop, both Frederick and Gabrielson were taken into custody and booked into the Moffat County, Colorado, local jail on auto theft charges. Authorities also confirmed that the pair are expected to face extradition proceedings that could return them to Oregon, where additional charges related to vehicle theft may be filed.
Officials said they are currently coordinating with investigators in Washington County to return the stolen sports car to its rightful owner. So far, law enforcement has not publicly disclosed the make or model of the vehicle, describing it only as an expensive, high-performance car.
The story highlights how seemingly small phone calls can solve much larger crimes. What started as a simple complaint about a man panhandling outside a grocery store resulted in the recovery of a stolen car, the discovery of illegal drugs, and the arrest of two suspects traveling across several states on other people’s dimes.
Source: steamboatradio.com, Daily Mail
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