Montana Man Arrested in 2007 Idaho Airplane Theft

A man suspected of helping steal a single-engine airplane from an Idaho airport five years ago has been arrested in Montana, police said.

Brian Haynes was taken into custody Sunday in Fairfield, Mont., and jailed on $75,000 bail pending extradition to Idaho, said Teton County Sheriff Keith Van Setten.

Haynes, 66, is charged in Power County, Idaho, with conspiracy to commit grand theft and grand theft of a 2003 AMD Alarus airplane that was stored at his business, American Air, at the American Falls airport.

Detective Sgt. Max Sprague first investigated the theft in 2007 then turned it over to the FBI, the Idaho State Journal reported. He then began investigating another case involving Haynes and passed that information on to the federal agency.

Sprague took the case back in May and said his investigation led him to believe the airplane was flown to Texas and taken apart.

“I worked nonstop on that for about five months,” Sprague said. “Every warrant I executed brightened the picture a little bit.”

Sprague turned the results of his investigation over to the county attorney’s office, which issued the warrant for Haynes and another person on Oct. 9 – five days before the statute of limitations would have expired.

Power County Sheriff Jim Jeffries says Haynes faces another grand theft charge for defrauding some other people out of an airplane, and a forgery charge for creating a fake document stating he owned an airplane that he used for collateral to obtain a loan.

Jeffries said Tuesday he has an officer in Montana interviewing Haynes.

Van Setten said Haynes had been living in a rural area west of Fairfield, Mont., for many years and is originally from the area. He was located with the help of the U.S. Marshals Service.

Van Setten didn’t immediately return a phone message Tuesday seeking to learn if Haynes has an attorney.