Geoffrey “Buck” Allen of Delta was arrested Dec. 15 after several area residents reported they’d been shortchanged in transactions involving the sale of trailers and a used vehicle.

Buck Allen

The investigation by the sheriff’s department was initiated Dec. 14, when deputies took a theft report from a woman who lives near Hotchkiss.

She had purchased a vehicle from Allen. The money had changed hands but the vehicle was never provided. Another woman from Delta had a similar charge concerning a trailer. An electrician from Hotchkiss reported that a check for work he performed for Allen in Delta had bounced. A man from Pea Green came to the office on Dec. 15 to report that he had paid Allen for a horse trailer that he never received. An investigation into these allegations was conducted and a warrant was issued for Allen.

Allen attempted to elude sheriff’s deputies when they contacted him at 12th and Main in Delta. He was apprehended with the assistance of Delta police officers and charged with three counts of theft and resisting arrest.

Bond was initially set at $61,000, but during the investigation concerns were generated about alleged fraud and theft by Allen against the owners of the West Way Motel and the building to the south. Allen claimed to own both buildings but does not. Criminal investigation concerning these allegations is ongoing with the assistance of the Colorado Bureau of Investigations.

A search warrant for the motel was secured and the building was searched on Dec. 17. Documents and firearms were seized, and an additional charge of possession of a firearm by a felon are pending against Allen.

When Allen was fingerprinted at the jail, the system automatically sent the prints to the FBI and CBA database. Warrants and request for holds on Allen were subsequently received from Cameron County, Texas (fraudulent use or possession of identifying information); FBI (transportation of a stolen vehicle and bank fraud); Montgomery County, Ala. (larceny); Walton County, Ga. (six counts of theft and taking of checks, three counts of bad checks, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and two counts of theft by deception).

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