University detectives arrest two involved in multiple catalytic converter thefts. University of Utah Police Department detectives have arrested two men in connection with a string of catalytic converter thefts on campus. UUPD responded to 18 thefts between August 2021 and May 2022. The investigation began March 1 when a student parked her car in a University lot to attend class; when she returned, she found her catalytic converter had been cut out. While taking that report, officers learned a second vehicle in the same lot had also been targeted. Detectives pulled Department of Motor Vehicles records to identify a vehicle seen on surveillance video, then conducted several weeks of surveillance. On March 23, detectives watched the vehicle's driver, David Leroy Rutishauser, go underneath a parked car for several minutes while a passenger, Martin Oliver Inger, acted as a lookout, and called in West Valley City Police to assist with the arrest. Both men were booked and later charged in 3rd District Court with multiple counts of theft and criminal mischief.
This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.
The investigation's origin, a single student's March 1, 2022 theft report, is unusually well documented for a property crime case; most catalytic converter thefts in this archive never reach an identified suspect
Officers found saws, two already-cut catalytic converters, drug paraphernalia, and a Social Security card belonging to someone other than the suspects when they searched the vehicle after the arrest, evidence the theft ring extended beyond campus
This is a paraphrase built from indexed excerpts of the University Safety Department's news release and matching coverage from KSL, KUTV, and the Daily Utah Chronicle; the literal wording could not be independently confirmed because the source page could not be fully retrieved in this session