A Bargreen Ellingson delivery driver in Casper, Wyoming, left his company’s white Ford Transit running in the alley behind the Wyoming Rescue Mission on the morning of Friday, Oct. 16, while he carried paper towels and other supplies to the back door. When he came back out, the van was rolling down the alley. Casper police later arrested Mason Owens, 23, who is accused of taking it. Police say the van hit the North Casper Clubhouse and later rolled into the grass beside Interstate 25, about 40 miles north of town.
Owens has not been convicted of anything. He made his first appearance in Natrona County Circuit Court on Monday, Oct. 19, before Judge Nichole Collier. He was held on a $50,000 cash-only bond, according to Oil City News’ court listing.
The driver says he grabbed the man through the door before the van took off
The driver, Skyler Larson, 24, described the morning to Cowboy State Daily. He said it was cold and he expected to be inside only briefly, so he left the engine running. While he unloaded, a man approached and chatted with him. Larson said the man then drifted toward the van and looked inside. Police call logs cited by the paper show officers were dispatched to the 200 block of North Park Street at 9:24 a.m. for a reported vehicle theft.
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According to Larson, the van stopped partway down the alley. He believes the driver wanted to shut the sliding cargo door. Larson said he caught up, opened the driver’s door, and tried to pull the man out. The van then accelerated and squeezed Larson against a pole beside the alley, leaving cuts on his left wrist. Oil City News, citing the police affidavit, reported that the driver told officers he did not think he had any major injuries. The same report says the man claimed to recognize Larson from high school, and Larson told police he did not know him.
Bargreen Ellingson employee Tom Branson told Cowboy State Daily that callers began phoning the company to report that its driver seemed to be under the influence. Branson said the company was told the van went through a construction closure under the McKinley Street bridge, struck the North Casper Clubhouse, and later exceeded 90 mph. Photos Branson provided show a bent railing and pieces of the van scattered outside the clubhouse entrance.
The company’s GPS tracker followed the van onto I-25 northbound. Branson said the trip ended near mile marker 233, about 20 miles south of Kaycee, where the van rolled. Oil City News reported that a witness quoted in the affidavit described the van passing at high speed, leaving the road for the ditch, coming back onto the pavement, and then flipping in the ditch. A Natrona County sheriff’s deputy took the driver to the hospital before he was booked into jail. The Wyoming Highway Patrol has not released a public account of the interstate portion.
Leaving the engine running has been legal in Wyoming since 2023
Many states and cities still require drivers to shut off the engine and take the key before leaving a vehicle. Wyoming dropped that requirement three years ago. House Bill 239, titled “Vehicle idling-decriminalization,” removed the part of W.S. 31-5-509 that required a driver to stop the engine, lock the ignition, and remove the key before walking away. Gov. Mark Gordon signed it in February 2023 after it passed the House 59-2 and the Senate 30-0. The statute today requires only that the brake be set and, on a grade, that the front wheels be turned toward the curb.
When the bill passed, its sponsor, Rep. Daniel Singh of Cheyenne, told The Wyoming Truth that he had found only one citation under the old rule in its roughly 70 years on the books. Singh specifically mentioned delivery drivers as people the change would help. Cities can still ban the practice locally. I found no Casper ordinance that does.
As a result, Larson broke no state law by leaving the Transit running at a back door on a cold morning. The legal exposure in this case falls on the man who drove it away.
Police recommended a felony assault count, but prosecutors filed something else
According to the Natrona County arrest log, police recommended four charges:
- aggravated assault and battery
- theft of $1,000 or more
- failing to fulfill his duty after colliding with an unattended vehicle
- reckless driving
The aggravated assault count would have rested on two definitions in Wyoming’s criminal code, W.S. 6-1-104:
- “Deadly weapon” expressly includes a “motorized vehicle” when it is used in a way reasonably capable of causing death or serious bodily injury.
- “Bodily injury” includes a cut or abrasion.
Under W.S. 6-2-502, causing or attempting to cause bodily injury with a deadly weapon is a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison. On paper, a van pressing a man into a pole and leaving his wrist cut fits that language. A jury would decide whether it did, if prosecutors ever charge it.
The charges read at Owens’ first appearance were different. The court listing shows:
- theft of a vehicle
- reckless endangering, listed twice
- no driver’s license
Reckless endangering under W.S. 6-2-504 means recklessly placing another person in danger of death or serious bodily injury. It is a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail. The listing does not say which theft section prosecutors used or whether the vehicle count was filed as a felony, though a Transit is worth well over Wyoming’s $1,000 felony-theft line.
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I found no court filing that explains why the felony assault count was dropped, and no public statement from Owens or a defense attorney. Wyoming felonies start in circuit court and move to district court after a preliminary hearing. Charges can be added or reduced at that point, and the listing itself notes they may be amended.
What the van did to Larson, and to everything else
Larson called the chase fight-or-flight. Wyoming doesn’t ask anyone to do what he did, and the deadly-weapon definition shows why: the van prosecutors could call a weapon is the one he reached into. Bargreen Ellingson’s photos show a crushed roof and a door lying in the grass. The clubhouse has a bent railing. Nobody has put a repair number on either.
Owens’ next step is a preliminary hearing, where a judge decides whether the evidence is enough to send any felony to district court. The decision that matters most is whether prosecutors stay with misdemeanor endangering for the moment Larson was squeezed against the pole, or charge it as the deadly-weapon felony police originally recommended.
Wyoming decided a running engine isn’t a crime. Smart rule, or did the Legislature just hand thieves a warm van?
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