A 43-year-old Festus man and a 29-year-old De Soto man were arrested in connection with the theft of a rental vehicle from outside the Holiday Inn Express, 1802 Gamel Cemetery Road, in Festus. The vehicle, a 2019 Ford EcoSport, was stolen Sept. 8 and was found a couple of days later in Imperial, authorities reported.
Festus Police Chief Tim Lewis said the victim, a man from Loves Park, Ill., told authorities he parked the compact SUV at the Holiday Inn Express at about 2 a.m. Sept. 8 and when he returned at about 5:30 a.m., it was gone.
“He left it unlocked and with the keys under the seat,” Lewis said.
The Sheriff’s Office recovered the car about 12:10 a.m. Sept. 10 after deputies responded to a call about “a stolen vehicle blocking the roadway” in the 1000 block of Main Street in Imperial, the Sheriff’s Office reported.
The deputy who responded to the scene encountered a suspect who told him he had driven the vehicle from another site in Imperial after he discovered it was stolen. That suspect and another one were arrested later, the report said.