Granite City Man Arrested for Alleged Involvement in Vehicle Thefts in Fayette County

The Fayette County Sheriff’s Department has arrested a 38-year-old Granite City man following a Wednesday afternoon chase in a stolen vehicle taken from the Vernon area and a later foot chase.

Kenneth Weldon is also a suspect in several other vehicle thefts.

Initial reports indicate St. Peter Police learned the SUV was stolen after investigating a suspicious vehicle complaint. St. Elmo Police later gave chase when locating the vehicle. After a brief pursuit, the vehicle crashed about a half-mile west of Con Agra Foods and a foot chase began. A K9 search led to Weldon being taken into custody.

The vehicle allegedly involved in the chase was reported stolen from a home in Vernon Wednesday morning. That incident followed the theft of a pickup truck from a home in Vernon Tuesday night. A sheriff’s deputy tried to stop the vehicle, but the driver fled after a passenger got out of the vehicle. The vehicle was later found abandoned after it had crashed into a mailbox and fence in the area. A K9 search of the area did not turn up a suspect.

Marion County sheriff’s deputies believe another incident may also be related. The incident occurred about two hours earlier when an SUV crashed into a rock pile off Race Street in Vernon. The SUV was pulling a trailer with a four-wheeler that came free and overturned in the road. Deputies had been told that the vehicle had driven through multiple yards before the crash. There was no one around when deputies arrived on scene.

The four-wheeler and the trailer were both reported stolen from the Shobonier area of Fayette County but were owned by separate persons in the Metro East.