Man charged after allegedly stealing camping trailer from Montana

James Jason Johnson | Jefferson County Jail
RIRIE – A 53-year-old man was charged after allegedly stealing a camping trailer and driving it over 400 miles.
James Jason Johnson was charged with felony grand theft.
On May 2, a Jefferson County Sheriff’s deputy was doing patrol in Ririe when he was flagged down by a man in a silver truck in front of Maverik.
The man pointed out a camping trailer in front of the car wash and said the driver was acting “suspicious,” according to the deputy’s report.
The reporting party stated the owner had run into the road “randomly” and had been sitting at the car wash for a long time.
The deputy went over to check on his well-being and identified the man as Johnson. When the deputy asked why he had been at the car wash so long, Johnson reportedly didn’t have an answer and was “waving his hands and acting “very agitated.”
The deputy also noted that Johnson “began rambling on about things that I couldn’t understand” and that the camping trailer had a California license plate, while his truck had a Montana license plate.
While Johnson was in the trailer looking for documentation, the deputy ran the license plates and discovered that the camping trailer had been reported as missing from Kalispell, Montana.
The deputy began to tell Johnson to come out of the trailer with his hands up, and he was then handcuffed and detained.
When asked who owned the camping trailer, Johnson said he had bought it from a friend in Whitefish, Montana. He then changed his story and said he got it from a friend who lives in Kalispell.
Johnson later told the deputy that there was “booze and possible dope” in the camper from “random people he had let live in there.”
He also said there “might the tin foil thingy’s as well.”
Johnson was then taken to the Jefferson County Jail and booked with a bond of $20,000.
Though Johnson has been charged with these crimes, it does not necessarily mean he committed them. Everyone is presumed innocent until they are proven guilty.
Johnson is expected to appear on Zoom for a preliminary hearing on May 11. If convicted, he could face up to 14 years in prison.
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Source: eastidahonews.com