With flight cancellations happening all over the place, people have been left frustrated over the fact that they haven’t been able to take their vacation. One man took that anger to the extreme by carjacking multiple vehicles after he learned his flight was no longer moving forward.
The man arrived at the Salt Lake City International Airport to learn that his flight to Denver had been canceled. Instead of acting rationally, he carjacked two cars and tried to steal two more, then also hit several vehicles in both Salt Lake and Summit counties before he was eventually taken into custody.
The eventful morning began at around 5 a.m., when Salt Lake police were informed about a 20-year-old man who became combative at the airport after becoming upset that his flight to Denver had been canceled.
“As our officers were heading to the scene, they learned that the passenger had actually left the area and had carjacked someone at the airport,” Salt Lake police spokesman Brent Weisberg said.
The man, later identified as John Joseph Thomas Green, left the airport in a stolen vehicle and crashed into another at an intersection. When attempting to make a U-turn, he allegedly crashed into a second car. The 20-year-old was in possession of a firearm at the time of the carjackings but in a later update police said they were “working to determine whether (the man) used a firearm during this carjacking.”
In total, Green was accused of causing five crashes and stealing two vehicles, despite attempting to take more. Two Summit County sheriff’s deputies arrived and pulled the man from the pickup and safely took him into custody at around 6:15 a.m.
Green was taken to a hospital for observation and police say he will later be booked into the Summit County Jail for investigation of multiple charges related to the events. He is also being investigated for impairment as a factor in the incident. Green is not believed to be from Utah.