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UPDATED: Police leave nothing to chance in motor home investigation

This story was updated at 5:30 p.m. with the latest information regarding the situation in west Steamboat.

Officers were engaged in a high-tension situation as they searched for a suspected car thief in an industrial lot at the end of Curve Court, behind the Routt County Justice Center, on Thursday, Oct. 27.

After a female suspect was located, along with a stolen vehicle in the lot, officers noticed a door on a nearby motor home was open, and the female suspect admitted to having gone inside.



After hearing a noise coming from the inside the motor home, law enforcement officers left nothing to chance. Adding to their concern, a gun was reported stolen out of a vehicle in an earlier incident connected to the stolen vehicle case, so officers operated under the assumption an armed suspect could have been inside the motor home.

“We treated it as a barricaded subject and our SWAT team, or the CERT, the Combined Emergency Response Team came out there,” said Police Commander Mark Beckett.



Beckett explained officers released CS gas, or tear gas, into the motor home and no firearms were discharged during the incident.

After investigating the motor home, first responders determined there wasn’t anybody inside.

Out of an abundance of caution, the public was asked to avoid the area around 1:22 p.m. The Steamboat Springs Police Department updated its Facebook Page around 4:30 p.m. saying the incident had concluded.

The stolen vehicle recovered near the motor home was the second recovered by law enforcement on the same day.

Earlier in the day, a male suspect was arrested after he was reportedly seen fleeing from a stolen vehicle on County Road 33, according to Beckett. The second stolen vehicle was reported shortly after.

The Steamboat Springs Police and CERT team were also assisted by Routt County Sheriff’s Office and Steamboat Springs Fire Rescue.


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