Madera County Sheriff John Anderson credits an alert citizen for phoning authorities about a suspicious truck parked outside a home in North Fork. The tip led to the arrest of two Mountain Area men.

Deputies were dispatched to a home off Corrine Lake Road in North Fork shortly before 11 p.m. Sept. 25.

The caller said a truck was parked outside the vacant house and an unknown number of people were inside with flashlights.

While en route to the remote location, Deputy Neil Cuthbert caught up to the truck roughly half a mile away from the home.

Jeffrey Lee Hughes, 52, who claims residences in North Fork, Coarsegold and Chowchilla, and Douglas Dennis Davis, 47, of North Fork, were inside the vehicle. They claimed the homeowner gave them permission to be on the property and to remove scrap.

Hughes and Davis were taken into custody without incident and transported to Madera County Department of Corrections. Bail set at $30,000 each.