PAINTSVILLE, Ky. — What began as a call to report the attempted theft of a storage building ended up with the recovery of a stolen vehicle and three men in jail on drug charges.

A Johnson County deputy was called to a home on McCarty Branch over a report that three men were trying to load a homeowner’s storage building into a pickup truck and drive away with it.

When the deputy arrived and asked the men what they were doing, Raymond Roman, 48, of Staffordsville, said he had paid $400 for the building and brought the other two men with him to help him move it. The men put it back after being told the owner hadn’t sold it.

The deputy then discovered that the truck they were using had been reported stolen out of Lexington, although Roman said he had “traded for it.” The deputy also found more than eight ounces of meth in the truck.

Roman and Michael Hall, 43, of Prestonsburg, were arrested and charged with complicity to meth trafficking. Roman was also charged with felon in possession of a firearm after a loaded 9 millimeter handgun was found in the truck.

The third man, Jason Curtis, 42, of Staffordsville, was also arrested on a meth possession charge.