Maricopa Police Department first learned of the trailer just after 7 p.m. Feb. 8 when it was reported stolen from a driveway on Nocera Road, according to a probable cause statement obtained by InMaricopa. 

Luckily for detectives, some of the Flock Safety license plate reading cameras placed around the city captured photos of the suspect vehicle before and after the theft.  

Cameras captured a Chevy S10 with temp tags driving on Maricopa-Casa Grande Highway at 4:46 p.m., and hauling the stolen trailer on Honeycutt Road at 5:42 p.m. 

The images showed the back of a “light skinned male” with a buzzcut and “greying black hair” driving the vehicle with no passengers. Comparing those with MVD photos of the registered owner of the truck, police identified the driver as 49-year-old Arizona City resident Pedro Cortez Gonzalez. 

Police arrested Gonzalez in Eloy on Wednesday, where he “said he remembered picking up the trailer from Maricopa and someone came to his house and retrieved it from him,” according to the police report.  

Officers noted finding “what appeared to be drugs” in his wallet but added no further details to that finding. 

Gonzalez was booked into the Pinal County jail on felony charges of auto theft, theft over $2000, burglary, trafficking stolen property and possessing dangerous drugs and paraphernalia. He also had a pre-adjudication warrant out of Eloy. 

He faces more than 64 years in prison. 

License plate reading cameras also played into multiple other recent arrests:  

• ‘Stewie Griffin’ doppelgänger arrested on meth charges – InMaricopa 

• California man’s arrest is a moving story — literally – InMaricopa 

• Road cameras track stolen U-Haul – InMaricopa 

• Road cameras bust alleged money launderer – InMaricopa