Emery County Sheriff’s Office Press Release
On Monday, Emery County Sheriff’s Office dispatch received a call from a worker at the ball complex in Huntington stating that one of their workers was acting strange and had left the job site on foot with a set of master keys to the building at the complex. Deputies responded to search the area and businesses close by. An employee at Heritage Funeral Home stated that he had noticed a suspicious person around their building, but was with a family making funeral arrangements so he wasn’t too concerned. This employee later called the sheriff’s office and reported that his vehicle was missing from the parking lot. Deputies remained on patrol looking for the subject and the stolen vehicle. Later in the afternoon, dispatch received a report of a suspicious male driving a school bus in the Cleveland area. A lieutenant from Emery County Sheriff’s Office located the slow moving bus and pulled in front of it before it had a chance to gain any speed. The driver of the bus, 30-year-old Patrick James Fredricksen, was arrested at the scene.
Upon further investigation, it was learned that Fredricksen is a convicted sex offender who was paroled in the Ogden area. He was working for a landscaping company installing sod at the ball complex in Huntington. After stealing the school bus and using a list he found in the bus containing names and directions, Fredricksen attempted to pick one child up at her home and was asking directions to a second child’s home.
After being taken into custody, Fredricksen broke a fire suppression system water pipe in the Emery County Jail, flooding his cell and the booking area. He is now facing two charges of theft of vehicle, attempted child kidnapping and damaging a jail.