Bond for a Mountain Home man who allegedly took a vehicle left running in a convenience store parking lot with a disabled person still inside will remain $50,000.
During a Baxter County Circuit Court session Thursday, Judge John Putman denied Tony Farnam’s request to have his bond lowered to $5,000. The state opposed a bond reduction for Farnam based on the nature of the charges against him.
Farnam is charged with felony kidnapping and theft of property.
The charges were filed following an incident last month when Mountain Home police received a report from a man who said he stopped at a local convenience store and left his car running while he went inside. The man’s handicapped brother remained in the vehicle.
When the man came out of the store, he found his car, along with his brother, gone. Police issued a “be-on-the-lookout” for the stolen vehicle. About 15 minutes after the “BOLO” had been broadcast, the vehicle was located in a parking lot at Baxter Regional Medical Center. The handicapped man was still strapped into the passenger’s seat.
Farnam was located in the BRMC emergency room and identified as the person who had taken the vehicle from the convenience store. He is alleged to have told police he took the vehicle without permission and was aware there was someone sitting next to him when the theft took place.
Farnam, who has entered a not guilty plea to the charges, was said to have told officers he was on methamphetamine at the time of the incident.
According to court records, at the time charges were filed in connection with the July vehicle theft, Farnam also had an active criminal case in circuit court involving the alleged theft of another vehicle. In the original case, Farnam was charged with taking the vehicle in late April, leaving his own in place of the one taken.
Police located Farnam and the stolen truck at a trailer park along Ninth Street in Mountain Home.
Farnam has said the theft of the first vehicle was a “misunderstanding” between friends, and if he could get of jail, he would straighten out the matter. The owner of the first vehicle told police Farnam did not have permission — tacit or otherwise — to have the vehicle.
Farnam made his Thursday appearance by way of a video hookup between the courtroom and county jail. Farnam launched into a discussion of his case, but was warned by the attorney representing him not to get into the details of his cases. Farnam made no further comments.
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