Charges have been issued against Dylan Hooper, 19, for the April 2024 theft of a motor vehicle at Culver’s, 10200 Big Bend Road, in Crestwood.

Charges are merely an accusation. Hooper is presumed innocent until proven guilty in court. 

The victim, an employee at Culver’s, reported on April 7, 2024, that a 2014 QX60 belonging to her father had been stolen from the restaurant’s parking lot during her shift. She had left the keys to her vehicle in the locker at the back of the restaurant. The rear door, where the lockers are located, had been propped open shortly before the vehicle theft was discovered. 

Propping the door was against company policy. Hooper, another Culver’s employee, was shown on surveillance cameras to be the one who propped the door open. 

Minutes later, a man — later identified as Hooper’s half-brother — entered through that door, went straight to the victim’s locker, picked up the keys to the vehicle and left. He then went toward the area of the parking lot where the victim’s car was parked; he left the restaurant in a different vehicle, at the same time as the victim’s car.

Hooper made 17 calls to a particular number during the roughly 45-minute period when the other man went inside and took the keys from the locker. That man was arrested weeks later in St. Louis City, driving the victim’s vehicle, when he admitted he knew he was driving a stolen vehicle.