In the early hours of Sunday, Nov. 24, between 2:46 and 3:38am, a man allegedly attempted to enter a residence in Satank, a residential neighborhood located just outside Carbondale within Garfield County. Finding all entrances locked, the man left. A neighbor’s security camera captured the coming and going of a large white truck which corresponded with the timing.
Later that morning, at around 7:35am, neighbor John Armstrong, a former Pitkin County Sheriff’s deputy, called in a “suspicious/welfare check” for a man “slumped over his steering wheel” in the same white Ford F150 truck at the Satank entrance to the footpath through Colorado Rocky Mountain School. The responding Carbondale Police Department (CPD) officer found the man eating breakfast and did not ask for identification or record his license plate number.
Hattie Taylor, who lives at the Satank residence with her son, slept through the incident. That morning, her son told her about the erratic though not aggressive behavior of the stranger, saying he reparked the truck multiple times. The Garfield County Sheriff’s Office was informed and Taylor had the foresight to install a camera of her own that same day.
Then, for the second night in a row, presumably the same person attempted to enter her residence. This time, he was caught on camera trying the front door between 3:36 and 3:51am. Taylor again slept through it but found the footage the following day and called the Garfield County Sheriff’s Office. She got no response, she said. Taylor also alerted the neighborhood with an email, writing, “Maybe one of you knows the truck and owner and can explain a reasonable scenario … an Airbnb guest lost and confused?”
On the third consecutive night, neighbors heard the truck approach and intervened. Armstrong called 911 around 4am. According to Garfield County, the call was received at 4:10am. Twenty minutes later, at 4:33am, the Sheriff’s Office formally requested help from CPD. During this time, Armstrong followed the truck out of Satank at a distance and reported it stopped at NAPA Auto Parts, where Joseph Moron — driver of the truck— was then contacted first by CPD at 4:40am followed by the Sheriff’s Office at 4:46am.
According to the Sheriff’s Office, Moron claimed he was invited to the residence by a woman named Jeweleta. He was told about the complaints and allowed to go. A criminal records check reveals Moron has been previously convicted of five felonies, including vehicle theft and assault, as well as five misdemeanors. The white truck was registered under the name of a different person based in Grand Junction. Since the confrontation, Moron has not returned.
According to Sheriff Lou Vallario, nothing the man did warranted criminal behavior. “There may be some gray area, but certainly nothing that was definitive as far as any probable cause for any crime that was committed that would constitute an arrest or a summons or anything like that,” he said. “Suspicious, of course,” but the man’s explanation was deemed reasonable and he said he was leaving the area to avoid trouble.
Still, Satank neighbors are asking why the law enforcement response was so slow and why the man was not apprehended with ample evidence of attempted breaking and entering, especially in light of a sexual assault that occurred at a woman’s home in Carbondale earlier that same month.
CPD Chief Kirk Wilson informed The Sopris Sun that their policy is to await a request for assistance from Garfield County when dispatch reports a call from outside city limits. “As soon as we step outside of our jurisdiction, we don’t necessarily have legal authority, with some exceptions,” Wilson explained. “Unless of course the Sheriff’s Office makes a request. As soon as they do, they’re not necessarily deputizing us, but we’re working under everything from their insurance down to their authority.” In this case, they held Moron until a Sheriff’s deputy arrived to make decisions.
“We have a really good working relationship with the Sheriff’s Office,” Wilson added. “We’re all on the same team.”
“Nothing prevents us from helping each other out, regardless of jurisdictional boundaries, especially when it comes to public or officer safety,” Vallario affirmed.
If nothing else, this incident is a reminder for area residents to lock their doors. At any given time, CPD has at least two officers patrolling, Wilson stated, while Garfield County has five to six spread across the county, reported Vallario. Although the call volume can be high, Wilson said, there are not often major crimes in Carbondale. CPD resources will be a topic of conversation at a Board of Trustees meeting in January.
Wilson emphasized he’s a “huge supporter of informal watches,” where neighbors trade phone numbers and basic information to help report suspicious activity. “Agencies have caught burglaries, have caught exes approaching, people who are restrained from a property on someone’s property,” Wilson listed off. Not only that, but disputes over annoyances like loud music late at night can often be resolved without involving police.
In this scenario, Satank neighbors feel that more could and should have been done. Some are pushing for a meeting with Wilson and Vallario to address concerns like why it took the Sheriff’s Office more than 20 minutes to request assistance from CPD. “Somebody could have gotten hurt and this guy could have gotten shot for his antics,” emphasized Armstrong.