Mountain Home man arrested for vehicle theft

A Mountain Home man, 24-year-old Anthony Thomas Dechow, was arrested by Baxter County Sheriff’s Investigators Monday afternoon following an investigation into the theft of a motor vehicle. He is being held in the Baxter County Detention Center on a $25,000 bond.

According to Baxter County Sheriff John Montgomery, on February 17th the Sheriff’s Office took a report from a person residing on Baxter County Road 30 that his pickup truck had been stolen. Several hours earlier that morning, the Sheriff’s Office had been notified by the Missouri State Highway Patrol headquarters in Rolla the vehicle in question had been involved in a motor vehicle traffic accident in Phelps County.Dechow was driving the vehicle at the time of the accident with two other passengers. The owner of the vehicle had not yet discovered it was missing, and it was not yet entered into National Crime Information Center (NCIC) as being stolen. As a result, Dechow was not detained in Missouri.

On February 20th, Sheriff’s investigators made contact with Dechow. He stated he had arranged, through a third party, to borrow the vehicle to drive to Monee, Illinois. He provided information as to the identity of the person, who allegedly loaned the vehicle to him, and where she lived. Investigators learned the woman had not seen Dechow in several weeks, she does not reside at the location he specified, and she had no knowledge of any vehicle or arrangements to borrow any vehicle.

An arrest warrant was obtained for Dechow. He was arrested Monday afternoon on felony theft charges. At the time of his arrest, a small amount of methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia was found on his person.

He was booked into the detention center on felony charges of theft of property, possession of a controlled substance, methamphetamine, and possession of drug paraphernalia.

He is scheduled to make an appearance in Baxter County Circuit Court.

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