BOUNTIFUL -- Apparently all the good will that went on during the week that "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" was in town was just a little too much for one criminal. A 39-foot motorhome, valued at about $90,000 that the cast and crew used to escape the summer heat disappeared last week. While making a 39-foot RV disappear is a feat of which most magicians would be envious, the person who took the RV didn't need smoke screens or mirrors to perform his trick. All he needed was to see the keys in the ignition. The RV was stolen from the parking lot of the LDS church meetinghouse that the show used to store production materials near 750 East and 550 South after someone apparently left the keys in the ignition.

For days police were unable to locate the mammoth vehicle.

Bountiful police finally found the RV early Monday morning after a person who lives on Ridge Hill Drive contacted the police and told them there was an RV parked in the driveway of an abandoned house in the neighborhood.

The person who called with the tip said the RV was not visible to those on the street.

Lt. Steve Gray of the Bountiful Police Department said the RV was found at the house with the keys still inside.

"It looks like someone took it out for a joyride," Gray said.

The RV that was missing was loaned, along with two other RVs, to the show from Ardell Brown RV Center in Sandy.

The center has been notified that the RV was found.

There are no leads and few clues concerning who took the vehicle and for what purpose.

The "Extreme Makeover" show came to Bountiful to make over the home of the Gordon and Lisa Harrison family.

Several thousand people attended the unveiling of the new home on Saturday, Aug. 6, but there were few if any who saw the RV being taken from the parking lot just two days later.

"I wish we'd been able to find someone behind the wheel," Gray said. "but at this point we don't know who took it."



cphares@davisclipper.com