Two arrested after Colorado deputy sees panhandler get into

A man and a woman allegedly begging for money to fund their cross-country travels in a stolen car were arrested this week in Colorado. 

Their journey came to an end Tuesday in Craig. There, employees of a grocery store called 9-1-1 to complain about a young woman who was repeatedly asking people for money. Staff believed she was disturbing the store’s customers.

A lieutenant with the Moffat County Sheriff’s Office responded to the call. He drove to the store and spoke with the woman. The 21-year-old woman claimed she had “fallen on hard times and just needed help getting home to her mother,” according to a Moffat County Sheriff’s Office press release.

The lieutenant gave her “a few dollars,” as stated in the press release.

He then watched her walk across the store’s parking lot and get into the passenger seat of “a very expensive sports car.”

The lieutenant called in the car’s license plate and learned it had been reported stolen out of Oregon “under allegedly violent circumstances,” per the press release.

The car was pulled over after leaving the parking lot. A police K9 alerted to the scent of drugs, and paraphernalia was located during a search. It tested positive for fentanyl, per the press release.

The car’s driver, Neo Gabrielsen, also 21, was taken into custody along with his passenger, Fallon Frederick. 

The search of the car also located a diary in which Frederick had documented the couple’s travels through multiple states in the stolen car. In it, she described how the pair took advantage of people along the way by begging for money.

The press release described the diary as “one of the more helpful pieces of evidence we’ve seen in a while.”

The make and model of the sports car were not provided. But Moffat County did state it was reported stolen in Washington County, Oregon. Moffat County is working with the Washington County Sheriff’s Office to get the car returned to its owner. 

Gabrielsen and Frederick remain jailed in Moffat County, according to MCSO Sheriff Chip McIntyre. Both face auto theft charges locally but are also awaiting extradition back to Oregon to face charges there.