Man arrested for stealing truck parts
Rifle Police arrested a man who allegedly made off with nearly $2,000 worth of parts stripped from a parked truck.
A woman called police around 7:30 a.m. Feb. 28 when she witnessed a man crawl out from under her coworker’s Chevy Tahoe with an engine differential in his hands.
The woman yelled at the man, 35, and he dropped the car part and left in his own car.
The truck’s owner later confirmed that her truck was missing its radio, starter, alternator, a wire harness and several other car parts, a total value of $1,934.
The car owner believed she knew who the suspect was, and found his profile on social media. The woman who called police identified the suspect out of a photo array.
The man was arrested on a warrant and booked in the Garfield County Jail March 14. He faces felony charges of theft of motor vehicle parts and criminal trespass.
Suspect in string of storage unit thefts arrested
Garfield County Sheriff’s Office investigators arrested a 25-year-old man for allegedly breaking into and robbing multiple storage units near Glenwood Springs.
Sheriff’s deputies began investigating the thefts Feb. 26, after the storage facility manager reported multiple units had been broken into over the course of a week.
In one unit, the renters reported a trombone valued at $300 had been damaged, and two jackets, totaling $1,100 in value, had been taken.
Another unit that was empty contained “transient possessions” like a tent, cooking grill and other personal effects.
Another unlocked unit had a hole cut in the drywall, large enough for a man to crawl through, that led to a locked unit, which also had items that indicated someone had been sleeping there. The storage unit manager had found a man in his 60s sleeping there in the past.
One of the units contained a receipt from Habitat for Humanity under a named account, but it wasn’t the name of the older transient man.
While the investigator was speaking with storage unit renters, a man who lived nearby ran through the storage facility to the road. The officer caught up with him, and after trying to speak with the man told him he was under arrest.
The officer used force to subdue the man and later spoke with him at the Garfield County jail.
That man said he was scared because he thought he had warrants for his arrest, but now realized he did not. He identified a different man, a 25-year-old, as the person who was stealing from storage units, and provided a name.
The storage units were broken into again, and on Feb. 28 investigators found surveillance video of a 25-year-old and the older man at a store, and believed they were connected.
The 25-year-old was arrested March 12, and booked in Garfield County Jail on charges of burglary and criminal mischief, both felonies, and theft of less than $2,000, a misdemeanor.
Two arrested for stealing from New Castle school
New Castle Police arrested two people for allegedly stealing $8,600 worth of computers, electronics cash and musical instruments from Elk Creek Elementary School.
The two suspects were seen on surveillance footage at the school around 1:40 a.m. March 11. They appeared to force their way in, and went around the school for about 20 minutes, and surveillance footage shows them walking around with iPads, according to a probable cause arrest document.
The pair returned around 2:20 a.m., and were seen carrying a guitar case and a trumpet case.
Later that same day, the school and police were able to track one of the missing laptops to a residence in town through Apple’s device tracker.
Driving through town around 5 p.m., a New Castle Police officer spotted a 31-year-old man near that residence matching the description and clothing from one of the subjects in the video. The suspect took off running, with the officer close behind.
The officer followed the man into the house, but stopped at the front door as the man ran up the stairs.
A vicious dog came out of the home, and the officer jumped outside and held the door shut, according to the police report.
A woman, 27, came to the door, and the officer explained that the man was under arrest for obstruction. But from the front door, he also saw a laptop computer that matched one of two missing from the school, as well as a speaker missing from the school music room.
An initial search of the residence on a warrant turned up the missing musical instruments, two of the four missing iPads, and other electronics reported stolen.
Both suspects were arrested for theft and burglary. The man also had warrants for misdemeanor charges in unrelated cases.