Facebook Post Leads To Stolen Antique Truck

Thanks to social media and an alert deputy, an antique truck stolen from a ranch near Eden last month has been found.

The truck, a green 1940 1 ½-ton Chevrolet flatbed with wooden cargo racks, was parked at the spot where it was stolen just off U.S. Highway 191 for many years and was last registered in the 1970s.

Sweetwater County Sheriff Mike Lowell said a witness reported in July that it was loaded onto a flatbed trailer drawn by a late 1990s to early 2000s black Ford diesel pickup, an extended-cab four-wheel-drive with Wyoming license plates. The black Ford pickup, towing the flatbed and stolen Chevrolet, left the area northbound on Highway 191.

The sheriff’s Office posted pictures of the stolen truck on Facebook and in the mainstream media, encouraging anyone with information to call in.

Shortly after the photographs were released, a Facebook poster reported that she had seen the truck, loaded on a trailer, northbound on Highway 191. Next, Deputy Sheriff Steve Dunning of the Sublette County Sheriff’s Office saw the Facebook post and realized he’d seen the truck on some property near Marbleton, southwest of Pinedale.

Working with Sublette County authorities, detectives of the Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office executed a search warrant on the Marbleton property and found the truck, which by then had been taken apart. They also interviewed the man who had the truck. His name hasn’t been released yet.

Lowell said his department's findings have been turned over to the Sweetwater County Attorney’s Office for possible charges.