Wednesday, July 23, 2008 3:07 PM CDT

Farmington Police have recovered a stolen ATV and ticketed a county resident for driving it down Karsch Boulevard.

The incident happened July 14 at about 8 p.m. Officers were sitting in the area of Rhodes 101 off Karsch Boulevard when they saw a man riding a four-wheeled ATV northbound on the shoulder of Karsch. The man was not wearing a helmet, and violating the city’s ATV law as well.

A police officer approached the man and asked about the ATV. He said he had just purchased it from a man. He would not give a useable description of the seller or what he may have been driving. The ATV rider did say he had bought the bike extremely cheap and was driving to his home north of town.

The man could not produce a bill of sale or title for his ATV. A further check revealed that the identification number had been filed off the tube frame rail.

A detective was called and the ATV was confiscated. Over the period of a couple days the detective was able to an acid number reconstruction kit — courtesy of the Missouri State Highway Patrol — to draw out the damaged numbers on the frame. A records check showed the vehicle had not been reported stolen. Missouri Department of Revenue records showed the owner.

Police contacted the owner and he said he didn’t realize the ATV had been stolen. He said it disappeared about four years earlier and he was under the impression it had been repossessed. A call to the holder of a lean on the bike showed it had not been confiscated.

Police initially ticketed the rider for operating an ATV on the roadway. He faces a charge of possession of property with the serial number altered, defaced or removed.

Chief of Police Rick Baker said this was the first time the acid reconstruction method had been used by one of the department’s officers to solve a case.

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