Joshua Luke Ray, 39, of House Springs has been accused of stealing a tailgate from a pickup parked outside a home in the Jefferson County portion of Fenton. The tailgate was seen on a pickup Ray was driving, court documents said.
The Jefferson County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office on May 7 charged Ray with receiving stolen property, a class D felony punishable by up to seven years in prison. He was arrested on July 7, and he was released from the Jefferson County Jail in Hillsboro on July 11 after posting a $7,500 bond, according to court records.
According to the case’s probable-cause statement, Ray and another man were traveling in a Ford F-150 on March 31 in the 1200 block of West Lark Industrial Drive in the Jefferson County portion of Fenton. Surveillance video from the area allegedly showed the pickup stopping frequently and the men allegedly looking at vehicles.
Ray and another man were allegedly seen in video on March 31 removing the tailgate from a pickup parked outside a home on West Lark Industrial Drive. The two put the tailgate in the F-150 and left, the report said.
Investigators were able to find video of the F-150 on Flock license-plate reading cameras. Video from the Flock cameras showed the pickup did not have a tailgate on March 28, but it did have a tailgate on March 31, according to the report.
On April 7, a Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office deputy saw the F-150 from the surveillance video from West Lark Industrial Drive and the Flock cameras at the BP gas station, 4685 Gravois Road, in House Springs. Ray was driving the pickup, which matched the one seen in video, and he was wearing the same jacket as one of the men allegedly seen stealing the tailgate, the report said.
Ray denied stealing the tailgate, according to the report.