A trial is scheduled Aug. 13 for a Logan man charged with stealing his own car from an impound yard just hours after it was impounded by Utah Highway Patrol troopers.
Eric Hauber, 25, said at his preliminary hearing in January that he took the car from the impound lot because he felt his rights had been violated when troopers impounded it after repeated equipment and registration violations."I went over there and took my car back because they stole it from me," he said.
Hauber took the car from the shop area of the Logan impound yard in November over the protest of the shop owner, drove it home and chained it to a tree in his yard.
Logan police soon found the car and accompanied an uneasy tow truck driver to Hauber's house to cut the chain and impound the car a second time.
Hauber was arrested early the next morning when another UHP trooper pulled him over - now minus his car and bicycling along U.S. 89-91 - and asked him to ride farther to the right side of the road.
At that point, the trooper said, Hauber became aggressive and bel-ligerent. Hauber admitted cursing the trooper but denied charges he shoved him into a ditch. A witness to the confrontation said while he did not see Hauber shove the trooper, he did see the trooper climbing out of the ditch.
The trooper said it later took five officers to wrestle Hauber to the ground and handcuff him. He was booked into the Cache County Jail for investigation of auto theft, burglary, reckless driving, disorderly conduct, assaulting a police officer, interfering with an arresting officer and improper operation of a bicycle on a road.
Hauber pleaded not guilty to all charges in 1st District Court Monday.