Things are not always what they seem. Vernal City Police Department utilized social media and asked for the public’s assistance on Monday morning in identifying a man in some security photos. The man is pictured setting something down in a parking lot that then starts on fire. Vernal PD did not offer any context to the photos but asked that anyone able to help identify the man or vehicle to please contact them. Vernal PD provided an update later in the day on Monday thanking the public for their input and concern. The post and photos were viewed on Facebook 32,000 times and thanks to that response, Vernal PD was “contacted by the elderly party depicted and found that during his travels his charging device became hot and malfunctioned. So that it did not cause damage to his vehicle or him, he stopped his vehicle and took the device out and placed it in a location he believed was safe so that nobody would run it over and had planned to return after his errand to retrieve it. It was within this time that the device overheated and caught fire. If you find yourself in a situation where something is malfunctioning in your vehicle during travel,” shares Vernal PD, “we would recommend that anything you take out of your vehicle is placed in an open area, and not close to buildings or other items that may catch fire. If the item is electrical or potentially hazardous, we would ask that you contact dispatch to report the incident.”
