McCullough County Sheriff’s Office discovered a burned pickup truck at the Heart of Texas Roadside Park near Brady, just off of US Hwy 377 Friday morning which had been reported stolen from Brownwood recently. 

According to Brownwood Fire Marshal Buddy Preston, MCSO contacted the Brownwood Police Department after they ran the identifiers of the truck and found it to be stolen from Brownwood.   Preston stated that he was contacted because MCSO wanted to see if any accelerants had been used to start the vehicle fire.

Preston agreed to come to the scene and brought his arson dog Nika to investigate around 11:30am Friday. 

“I thought it would be a great opportunity to use Nika,” said Preston.  “She alerted to one item inside the cab of the truck and seven other locations on the ground around the truck.”

According to Preston, the interior fire was ignited with the windows rolled up and the doors shut, which effectively smothered the interior fire.  Preston stated that the other exterior areas ignited were lit separately.

Brownwood Police reports indicate that the truck was stolen from the Camelot Apartment Complex on Slayden Street near Brownwood High School on February 6th.  The case is currently under investigation with unknown suspects as of Friday afternoon.