UPDATE: Manassas Park police captain arrested

12:07 p.m. update: Travis Mosher will appear in court Feb. 10 on charges of grand larceny and petty larceny in connection with Saturday night's incident in Woodbridge. Grand larceny is a Class 6 felony in Virginia, punishable by one to five years in jail and a $2,500 fine.

WOODBRIDGE, Va. -- Manassas Park police Capt. Travis Mosher, the force's third in command, resigned Sunday, one day after he was charged with stealing a volunteer fire chief’s vehicle in Woodbridge.

City police Chief John Evans confirmed Mosher’s resignation late Sunday afternoon, and did not say who would replace Mosher as operations commander.

Mosher, 30, was arrested after the Dale City Volunteer Fire Department reported one of its Ford Excursions stolen from an installation celebration at the Occoquan-Woodbridge-Lorton fire station on F Street. Police received the stolen vehicle report about 7:30 p.m.

Mosher has been charged with felony grand larceny and misdemeanor petty larceny, said Prince William police spokeswoman Erika Hernandez. The SUV was found abandoned near BJ’s Wholesale Club off Prince William Parkway in Woodbridge.

Mosher turned himself in at a Prince William police station. He was released on his own recognizance.

Police said Mosher was at an awards banquet held Saturday by the OWL Volunteer Fire and Rescue Department, celebrating the installation of its new officers. Rep. Gerald E. “Gerry” Connolly, along with other local officials, were there to witness the swearing in of at least 40 new officers, said OWL Chief Jim McAllister.

“Mosher was not invited to the event, and is not affiliated with OWL,” said McAllister. “We are looking into the possibility that he came as a guest of someone who was invited to the banquet, or if he just invited himself, and into reports that he showed up on the premises already under the influence of alcohol.”

Police are also continuing their investigation into the incident.

Surveillance cameras recording the fire station’s parking lot were used to identify Mosher as a suspect in the theft, said McAllister.

Dale City Volunteer Fire and Rescue Department Chief Christopher G. Hool said Mosher is not affiliated his department. Hool would not comment on the events leading up to the report of the missing DCVFD vehicle, calling it a police matter.

On a Web page created on the popular social networking Web site LinkedIn, Mosher lists himself as a “volunteer operations captain” with Prince William County fire department, but sources say he has not been an active volunteer firefighter for at least nine years.

Mosher joined Manassas Park police in May 2005 as a patrol sergeant, and then quickly worked his way up through the ranks to become a division commander one year later, according his LinkedIn profile.

Mosher calls himself an “outstanding leader with a firm but fair attitude, and a reputation for honesty, loyalty and integrity,” according to his profile.

His LinkedIn page says he is currently enrolled at Northern Virginia Community College, where he is pursuing a degree in criminal justice. The profile also says he is a 2001 graduate of the Northern Virginia Criminal Justice Academy in Ashburn.

Staff writer Uriah A. Kiser can be reached at 703-878-8065.