Bundy’s 1975 Arrest

On August 16, 1975, Ted Bundy was arrested in Granger, Utah for evading capture from a local police officer. In the police report listed below, Robert Hayward explains details of Bundy’s capture, including the “burglary tools” found in his car. Mention of this his missing passenger seat is also included.

“UTAH Highway Patrol Incident Report

Type of Incident: Attempt to Evade

Reporting: Sgt. Robert A. Hayward

Division: Special Operations

At about 2:30 A.M. on Saturday morning, August 16 [1975], a gray Volkswagen went by me while I was sitting in my patrol car in front of my house. I looked at the license plate and did not recognize it.

About ten minutes later…as I was going up Brock Street in Granger, a car took off north bound on Brock Street at a high rate of speed…I was in pursuit…at a high rate of speed. We ran the stop sign at Brock and LeMay and again at the entrance to the 35th South off Brock Street…I had the red spotlight on him when he ran the stop sign at Brock and LeMay, but he just went as fast as possible.

…I pulled up on him fast, and he pulled over into a gas station. He produced his drivers license which identified him to be Theodore Robert Bundy, 565 1st Avenue, Salt Lake City, Utah, dob 11/24/46. The man wearing dark pants, a dark turtle neck with long sleeves, and sneakers. He stated that he was lost in the subdivision, but he had been there and again came back in about ten minutes…

I looked in the front seat and there was not a seat on the passenger side, so I looked a little closer and discovered the front seat was lying in the back seat on its side. On the floor were some tools such as a jimmy bar about 14 inches long…

I called for a County car to come over and they sent a Deputy and a Sergeant. They talked to Mr. Bundy and he told them he had been out west to the drive-in theater to see “The Towering Inferno.” We checked at the theater and that movie was not playing, so he just said he was lost.

The deputies looked in the car and asked if there was a gun in it. I said not to my knowledge, but that I had not looked that closely and perhaps we should check farther. After that, they came up with a few other items of interest that a person coming from a movie normally would not carry such as an ice pick, a pair of handcuffs, silk stockings with holes cut in for the eyes and nose, and other items that a burglar might carry.

They called for a detective car and Deputy Ondrak came over and took the items into custody. We impounded the car and I took Mr. Bundy to the County Jail and booked him on the charge of ‘Attempting to Evade a Police Officer.’ The time of booking was approximately 3:30 A.M.”