Mobile Home Dumper Arrested: Sheriff

CORNELIUS, OR — The person allegedly responsible for dumping one half of a double-wide mobile home at an elementary school parking lot in Cornelius this past weekend was arrested Monday evening while reportedly trying to pick up the other half from the mobile home's original owner.

Derek Brandon Conley, 35, of Portland, was taken to Washington County Jail and charged with offensive littering — a Class C misdemeanor. However, Conley is also being held on a warrant for felon in possession of a firearm.

Conley's criminal history in Oregon also includes a conviction for attempted murder in 2010, among many other felony crimes.

The Washington County Sheriff's Office serving the city of Cornelius was first notified of the abandoned half-a-mobile home when neighbors around Echo Shaw Elementary School saw a white pickup towing the oversized load into the school's parking lot just before 3 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 15.

Following up on resident complaints, deputies checked out the half-a-home and found — among several other concerns — the structure had hazardous mold.

While they worked to remove the structure from the school's parking lot, deputies also asked the community for any information regarding who may have left it.

Posting the question on its Facebook page, @wcsocornelius, deputies watched as more than a dozen people began chiming in. A few of the commenters said they saw the truck and wayward mobile home on Highway 47 the day before; it looked as though it came from Gaston, they said.

Other commenters then directed the Sheriff's Office to a Craigslist ad for the same mobile home:

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The ad promised a collective $1,000 payment to whomever removed both halves of the mobile home from the seller's property.

When deputies finally got hold of the seller, they learned that someone had in fact picked up one of the halves with the promise to return and retrieve the other half. According to sheriff's officials, the man — later identified as Conley — even went so far as to explain that he planned to convert the mobile home into a small housing unit in Portland.

On Monday night, around 11:30 p.m., the seller called the sheriff's office to let them know Conley was coming back to pick up the other half. When Conley arrived at the property outside Yamhill, he was arrested.

When deputies asked what Conley had intended to do with the mobile home, he said he was planning to convert it into a "car hauler," WCSO spokesman Jeff Talbot said. Then deputies reportedly asked Conley what he'd done with the first half.

Evidently unaware of the news storm surrounding the conspicuously abandoned half-a-home, Conley reportedly told deputies he'd taken the first half to Portland and left it on a friend's property. When the deputy called Conley out on the lie, "His shoulders sank" and he said he'd had issues with one of the trailer's tires, Talbot told Patch.

Deputies also tried to figure out why Conley — regardless of his inconsistent excuses — would try to return for the second half of the home knowing full well he'd left the first half in an elementary school parking lot.

"We strongly believe his intentions with the second half of the mobile home was the same as those with the first: To pocket the money and abandon the second half somewhere else," Talbot said, adding, "He got caught red-handed."

The dumped half of the mobile home was initially taken to the city's Public Works property before it was returned to the seller — who will presumably try again to give it away.

Images via Washington County Sheriff's Office