3 illegal immigrants admit taking car

Three illegal immigrants were arrested Thursday after admitting they stole a pickup truck from a home in Green Valley.

The owner of the truck told Pima County Sheriff’s deputies that around 2 p.m. he parked his Ford F-150 in front of a friend’s house in the 300 block of East Via Terrenal, off Abrego Drive just south of Duval Road. When the friend asked him several minutes later where the truck was parked, he looked outside and it wasn’t there, the Sheriff’s report said.

The man called 911 and an alert was sent out to law enforcement authorities that the vehicle had just been stolen. Minutes later, a Sahuarita police officer spotted the truck northbound on Interstate 19 near Sahuarita Road.

Police caught up to the car near the San Xavier Road exit, where they stopped the truck and arrested the men, reports said.

Three men were arrested and booked into Pima County Adult Detention Center: Jose Garcia Correa, 36; Osvaldo Marin Trujillo, 29; and Alejandro Ibarra, 40.

Correa was charged with theft of means of transportation and Trujillo and Ibarra were charged with unlawful use of means of transportation.

The men reportedly admitted to authorities that they had crossed the border illegaly several days before.

Trujillo said he had been walking through the desert for nine days when he came across the two men, who he didn’t know. The men gave him water, and they walked together for several days when they ended up in Green Valley.

The men came across a vehicle with its keys in the ignition and decided to take it, he said.

The man said he left the truck unlocked with the keys in the ignition because he thought the neighborhood was safe, and planned on leaving soon to run errands.