Drunk Man Arrested with Stolen Vehicle

A Fort Smith, Ark., man pleaded not guilty Nov. 27 to possession of a stolen vehicle, a felony charge that carries a penalty of imprisonment in the Department of Corrections for up to two years.

Wesley Curtis Underwood, 28, also pleaded guilty to public intoxication, a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in the county jail, a fine of up to $500 or both.

On Nov. 27, a pair of Sequoyah County sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to a rural Sallisaw residence in reference to a suspicious male driving a black Jeep. The reporting party said the man had driven onto their driveway, got out of the Jeep and started walking around their property. The man then allegedly came up to the home’s locked front door and started trying to open it.

When deputies arrived, they saw the Jeep parked in the driveway and noticed a white male walking around the front of the vehicle. He got in the driver’s seat but then exited and walked back to the front of the Jeep, which was bearing a Virginia tag.

Deputies approached the man, who identified himself as Underwood. When asked what he was doing on the property, he said he was from Fort Smith and was lost, just wanted directions and was almost out of gas.

Underwood reportedly appeared nervous and under the influence of something. A deputy patted him down for safety and discovered in his right front pocked a long metal rod with a blue handle. When asked what it was, Underwood said it was a “biopsy tool, used for sucking people’s insides out.”

Underwood was detained at that time because he was becoming increasingly agitated. When he was asked who owned the vehicle, he said he bought it in Fort Smith, but he had no papers to prove it. He later said he was given the vehicle from a car lot in Fort Smith. When officers asked him about all the personal items in the vehicle belonging to the registered owner of the vehicle, Underwood said, “I guess he was just in a hurry and did not get them out.”

Laura Brown, KXMX Staff Writer

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