By Travis Uresk
2/20/25
| Vernal, Ut. | January 27th, 2025 – February 19th, 2025 |
On 1/27/25, Sgt. Watt was assigned to a theft case involving a counterfeit $50 bill at the Maverik Convenience Store at 1740 West US-40.
The complainant reported that a male came in and paid $50 for services. The complainant thought it might be fake and tried entering it into their money machine, but it wouldn’t accept it, leaving them to believe it was counterfeit.
The officer met with the store's Assistant Manager, who turned the counterfeit bill over to him. While inspecting the $50 bill, the officer determined, through his experience and training, that it was counterfeit and appeared to be a color copy of a real $50 bill.
Later this same day, Sgt. Watt took another unrelated case at another local business where another counterfeit $50 with the same serial number was passed.
On 2/1/25, Officer Maughan responded to the Family Dollar located at 620 West Main regarding a reported fraud. It was reported that a bald white male in his 30s—40s with a goatee wearing a black hoodie and jeans had tried to use a fake $50 bill.
While Officer Maughan was en route to the call, Sergeant Watt informed him of two recent similar cases. Officer Maughan emailed pictures of the suspect to show the complainant to see if they recognized him.
When Officer Maughan arrived, he spoke with the cashier who handled the counterfeit bill and another cashier who also checked the bill and verified that it was fake. The male suspect attempted to purchase a small valued item with the $50 bill. When it was determined that the bill was counterfeit, the suspect took the bill and put it in his pocket, then used a $5.00 bill to pay for the item. The suspect told the cashier that he got the $50.00 bill from the ATM.
Officer Maughan showed the emailed suspect photos from the other cases to the clerk, who confirmed it was the same male suspect. The manager was not able to record the video surveillance from the store at that time but did take a photograph of the male suspect in the video surveillance screen and forwarded it to Officer Maughan
From the surveillance video screen photo, it appeared to be the same suspect who was being investigated for other offenses.
Sgt. Watt emailed Maverik's corporate office and requested video surveillance of the transaction, which was delivered to him via email a couple of days later. Upon reviewing the videos, the officer observed a white male in black pants and a black sweatshirt enter the store at 2:15 a.m. and pick up a gallon of anti-freeze.
The male took the anti-freeze directly to the counter and paid for it, using the counterfeit $50 bill. The clerk gave him change for the difference. After the male left, the clerk tried to put the $50 bill into the safe but bill would not pass through the electronic system. She then used a counterfeit bill marker on the money and discovered that was counterfeit.
In the video, Sgt. Watt noticed that the male suspect was the passenger in a black Ford pickup truck. It was later determined that the driver was not involved, and it was said that he had picked up the suspect east of Vernal because he had broken down.
A BOLO poster with the suspect's photo was created, and it was dispersed to several police agencies to locate the suspect.
On or about 2/5/2025, Sgt. Watt received a phone call from a detective from the Roosevelt City Police Department regarding this case and a BOLO poster. The detective was able to identify the owner of the truck and interview him, but the suspect was still unknown.
The officer was informed that the Duchesne County Sheriff's Office was also investigating a case from the Myton Family Dollar in which a male suspect attempted to pay for merchandise with a counterfeit $50 bill but was refused. That suspect was still being sought for theft. The Duchesne County Sheriff's Office posted a photo of their suspect on their Facebook Page.
Sgt. Watt found that this appeared to be the same person as from Maverik.
Duchesne County received several tips about the person. One of the names given was Tyson Grant, who is out of Duchesne.
At the time, Sgt. Watt's only photo of Tyson was a 2018 booking photo. Although the suspect in his case had some similarities, it did not appear to be the same person.
To further this investigation, Sgt. Watt submitted photos from the video surveillance from this case to the Utah Statewide Information and Analysis Center (SIAC) for a facial recognition comparison and submitted a different name with the photos for the comparison, not Tyson Grant.
The officer received a response back from SIAC in which they compared one of the three photos and came back with a 94.61% comparison as Tyson Grant. There was no comparison percentage given to the other name he submitted with the photos.
On 2/18/2025, Sgt. Watt was contacted by Duchesne County Deputy Cpl. Cox regarding Tyson Grant, whom he had stopped on a traffic stop. He was informed that later that morning, Cpl. Cox arrested 44-year-old Tyson Devon Grant.
At the time of his arrest, Tyson was found to be in possession of several counterfeit bills, including two $50 bills. One of the counterfeit bills had the exact same serial number used in one of the Vernal cases Sgt. Watt was working.
On 2/19/2025, Sgt. Watt took custody of Tyson after he was temporarily released from the Duchesne County Jail. When taking custody of Tyson, the officer observed the mark on his right eye, which he confirmed was a tattoo. He also noticed the tattoo of the letter A on the back of his right hand and the knuckle tattoo on the same hand. These matched partial tattoos were observed during Maverick's video surveillance.
Tyson Devon Grant was transported to the Uintah County Jail, where he was charged with one count of Possession of a Forged Writing for possessing and attempting to pass the counterfeit $50 bill as legitimate. This charge is a Third-Degree Felony.
POSSESS FORGERY WRITING/DEVICE-Tyson D Grant may post bail in the amount of $5,000.00.
POSSESS FORGERY WRITING/DEVICE THEFT/DECEPTION - QUALIFYING FELONY PRIOR IN 10Y-Tyson D Grant may post bail in the amount of $5,000.00.
All the articles from 1nationjustice.com are from the affidavits of probable cause reports that the officers write. If you would like, you can get a copy of the report from the website below. It does cost money to get on the site and to open every document you want to read.
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