By The Arkadelphian

Felony charges have been filed against a Bismarck man towing a boat detectives say he stole from a Caddo Valley resident.

Kyle Michael Johnston, 27, was charged this week with property theft and forgery following a June traffic stop by Caddo Valley police.

On June 23 a Caddo Valley officer was summoned to Iron Mountain Marina for a report that a male suspect was stealing fuel and other items from boats moored there. En route to the marina, CVPD officer Issac Perry made a traffic stop on Johnston’s vehicle in the back parking lot of Pilot Truck Stop. The license plate Perry ran turned out to have been reported stolen three days prior, according to a probable cause affidavit Clark County investigators filed.

The marina employee who phoned in the report arrived on scene and identified Johnston as the suspect stealing fuel from boats on the docks. Johnston admitted he had been there to retrieve a fuel container from someone he named, but the marina employee noted that person hadn’t rented a boat slip “in years,” according to the affidavit. Johnson was ultimately arrested for being in possession of the stolen license plate. While running his information through the crime information center, police learned Johnston had felony theft warrants in Hot Spring County dating back to April. Information in that case alleges that Johnston had stolen an aluminum jon boat in Caddo Valley.

Johnston was then transported to the Clark County Detention Center and held for Hot Spring County detectives. Group 6 Narcotics Agent Roy Bethell notes in the newest affidavit that the boat Johnston was hauling during the June traffic stop — a 19-foot ski boat, motor and trailer — had been reported stolen from a Pearcy resident.

In the days following Johnston’s arrest, detectives obtained a search warrant for the pickup he was driving and found “numerous car titles, documents and an air compressor” that had been reported stolen from Arkadelphia Auto Sales. In the glovebox of the boat was a handwritten bill of sale showing Johnston as the buyer, along with a forged signature of the actual owner as the seller.

Johnston is also charged with possession of drug paraphernalia.

He remains in custody at the Clark County jail.