Man reports stolen car in Snowmass

A Snowmass resident reported his car stolen last week from Lot 2 by Snowmass Mall. 

The man, 46, said he left his 2006 white Ford Taurus at 9 p.m. Oct. 9. The car was gone when he returned around 3 p.m. on Oct. 11, as were the golf clubs he’d left inside the car.

A Roaring Fork Valley resident off and on since 1999, the man, who wanted to remain anonymous, said in the past he never had to worry about theft. He would leave his car and house unlocked.

“I’ve lived here for 25 years. I’ve never taken the keys out of my car. Ever,” the man said, adding, “I think I’m less pissed off about the car being ripped off than I am about like — this happens here now.”

Snowmass Police Chief Brian Olson said they’re conducting an ongoing investigation for the car. 

“We’ve looked in every nook and cranny, every parking lot around, just in case it was a joy ride within the Village,” Olson said.

He said he’s not sure what the circumstances are around the disappearance of the white Taurus, and they won’t know until they find it and can backtrack. 

They get a report of a stolen car every couple years, but many are misplaced — not stolen. In this case, however, they’ve searched the whole Snowmass area for the car and have yet to find it, he said. 

“We’re treating it as if it’s stolen, continuing to look, and we’ve been unable to locate it locally,” Olson said. “(We’re) starting to spread our ability to look a little wider to see if we might be able to discover where it went.”

He said they’ve put out a report of the stolen car in the national crime computer system, so if the car is pulled over or found and a police officer runs the license plate, they will see it’s a stolen vehicle. 

He did not comment on how it may have been stolen, or who might have stolen it. They won’t know the motive for the theft until they recover the car and the responsible party, he added.  

“We feel confident it’s no longer here,” Olson said. “And now it’s just a matter of waiting for someone to come across it, so that it gets identified as stolen.”

Skyler Stark-Ragsdale can be reached at 970-429-9152 or email him at sstark-ragsdale@aspentimes.com.