A Glenwood Springs woman reported to police on the morning of June 23 that someone had broken into her home and had taken her car from the driveway.

In the night she awoke and found the screen in her bedroom window had been cut. Her black 2013 Toyota Camry was also missing.

She had come home after getting off work just past midnight and fell asleep on her couch, she told officers. Her car keys were in her purse that was right at her feet as she slept. She suspected that her nephew, a 21-year-old man, was involved “because of recent interactions with him,” according to an affidavit.

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Later that day, a Garfield County sergeant stopped the young man, who was at that time driving a stolen Colorado Department of Transportation truck. The young man told the sergeant that he had stolen his aunt’s car early that morning, drove it to Edwards, where he then stole a work van, drove the van back to No Name and then stole the CDOT truck, according to an affidavit.

He was arrested on felony charges of second-degree burglary, aggravated motor vehicle theft and first-degree criminal trespass. His misdemeanor charges were theft and criminal mischief.

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Brian Dunlap acquitted of first-degree assault

Brian Dunlap, a 30-year-old Glenwood Springs man accused of slitting his brother’s throat on Transfer Trail last year, was acquitted of first-degree assault by a trial jury last month.

In a three-day trial, Dunlap pleaded self-defense. District Attorney Jeff Cheney said the jury deliberated for about five hours before returning with a verdict of not guilty on the charge of first-degree assault with a deadly weapon causing serious bodily injury.

The brother told police that they frequently get into fights, and on this occasion the defendant said they were arguing over four-wheeling routes while they were about 7 to 10 miles into Transfer Trail.

Dunlap told police that his brother had attacked him, which he said he “returned in kind” with a knife, according to police.

Valley View physicians later found the brother with a laceration to his neck about 4 inches long, 2 inches wide and 1 inch deep, with an artery visible in his neck, according to an arrest affidavit.

Tenant arrested on theft of landlord’s jewelry

A woman living in an apartment in Carbondale had rented out a room to a 26-year-old man who was attending the Jaywalker Lodge alcohol and drug dependency program.

She left the man alone with the apartment for a month while she traveled back east to care for her mother, she told police. When she returned, she found someone had stolen thousands of dollars of jewelry from her closet and dresser.

In the 26-year-old’s bedroom, she found two medication boxes of hers, though police warned her not to go into his room again.

At the apartment, officers searched the man’s backpack, finding a credit card case containing several of the woman’s cards, her driver’s license and a $350 check written to her. She told officers that these had come from her dresser drawer, and she hadn’t realized they were missing.

The 26-year-old tenant was arrested on second-degree burglary and criminal possession of a financial device, both felonies, along with misdemeanor criminal possession of identification documents.

Shoplifter found with heroin

A shoplifting case at the Rifle Wal-Mart last week turned up evidence of heroin distribution.

While responding to a shoplifting report at Wal-Mart on the afternoon of June 23, Rifle police officers were alerted to a second theft occurring when they arrived.

A 45-year-old man had walked out with items he had not paid for, the store’s security office said.

When questioned by police, the man appeared very nervous and “muttered something fairly unintelligible,” according to a police report.

“His face, arms and legs had multiple sores that are consistent with drug use in my experience and training,” an officer wrote in his report.

The man’s girlfriend was also being arrested for theft at the time. While he was being placed under arrest for theft of $82.20 of merchandise, officers found “an unused syringe, a small scale with a brown sticky residue and a metal snuff can with a brown sticky glob appearing to be heroin,” according to police.

The 45-year-old eventually admitted it was heroin, according to an affidavit. The substance weighed about half a gram and tested positive for heroin.

He was arrested on charges of controlled substance distribution/manufacturing, a drug felony, and theft, a misdemeanor.