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KIMBALL JUNCTION, Summit County — An Idaho man was arrested in Summit County early Friday after leading police on a chase and then breaking into a house where an unsuspecting family was sleeping.
Anthony Ortega, 23, of Preston, was booked into the Summit County Jail for investigation of aggravated robbery, possession of a stolen vehicle, evading police, reckless driving and failing to stop at the command of an officer.
The incident began just before 2:30 a.m. when a resident in the Summit Park area called police to report that a package had just been stolen off of his porch. The homeowner was not at his house at the time, but the motion detector on his surveillance camera was activated and he got an alert on his phone, which woke him up, said Summit County Sheriff's Lt. Andrew Write.
The homeowner was able to describe the man he saw on his camera to an emergency dispatcher.
A deputy who was in the area spotted a man on Kilby Road and attempted to pull over the 2013 Lexus the man was driving, which was listed as stolen from Murray. But police say the driver, who was later identified as Ortega, sped away onto I-80.
"Ortega exited at Kimball Junction, made a U-turn and got back onto I-80 westbound, but not before deputies successfully deployed tire spikes on the suspect vehicle," the sheriff's office said in a statement.
Ortega got off the freeway at Jeremy Ranch, stopped his car on Homestead Road, then got out of the vehicle and ran until he came to residence with an unlocked back door and went inside, according to the sheriff's office.
Deputies, who were close behind Ortega and chasing after him with a police K-9, were able to follow Ortega's footprints in the snow. Those footprints came to a stop near a back porch, where a sliding glass door was partially open, Wright said.
The deputies began announcing their presence and yelling into the home. That woke up a man, who was asleep in the house and came to the back door to find out what was going on. After being told that deputies were looking for a man who ran from them, the homeowner said he noticed that the door to a utility closet that is normally shut was partially open.
Deputies went inside the house and found Ortega hiding in the closet. He was arrested without further incident. The closet was located next to a bedroom where a teenage boy was sleeping, Wright said.
The homeowner told deputies that he typically checks each night to make sure his doors are locked before he goes to bed. But that night, he had not.
Wright said the incident is a good reminder for all homeowners to lock their doors at night. He said investigators are happy the incident was resolved without anyone being hurt.
In addition to the new crimes allegedly committed, police say Ortega had 14 outstanding warrants for his arrest.
