Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
During Friday night’s homecoming game, Sweet Home police were out in force looking for the thieves responsible for a string of car clouts during games.
Police Chief Bob Burford spent part of the evening on foot around the game and high school. Another police officer was out on a bicycle. Burford later patrolled the area in his vehicle.
“We’ve been getting a lot of car clouts,” Burford said. The other issue is “a lot of narcotics activity during games” around an 18th Avenue house where, police report, they seized a methamphetamine lab last week.
Bringing them in during off hours, “we started putting people on foot to address the issues,” Burford said.
Two weeks ago, a police officer saw and stopped someone near the high school, someone police know well, Burford said. The subject had done nothing to warrant an arrest, and the officer talked to the subject and left. Circling around, the officer watched him and allegedly saw him break into vehicles and steal items.
The officer called other police officers and went after the suspect. The suspect took off, and police recovered the stolen property. Police called in a dog to track the suspect but were unsuccessful.
Police found him Monday at Mountain Shadows Trailer Park and arrested him, Burford said. The suspect was Sean Ever Jones, 22, on two counts of unauthorized entry into a motor vehicle and two counts of third-degree theft. He was booked, cited and released.
The car clouts, in which thieves smash their way into cars and steal property, are happening all over the place, Burford said. “It’s really hard to get a grip on it.”
The thieves are on foot or bicycles, and now the police are doing it the same way.
“The night of the game (two weeks ago), it was little stuff,” Burford said. Thieves took an axe, a tie-down strap and a gas can; and someone had attempted to break into a car that had a firearm.
Friday morning, someone broke into a car parked behind Rio Theater, Burford said. This happened in broad daylight, and police would like to hear from anyone who may have seen anything suspicious there.
Steve Hanscam, owner of the parking lot behind the theater, said he’s swept up glass in the lot “at least four times since May.” He said two backpacks were stolen from his son’s vehicle, which was parked at the Church of Christ at 18th and Long, a week ago.
During Friday night’s patrol, police arrested a woman for first-degree criminal trespass at the methamphetamine lab, which has been posted as uninhabitable until it is cleaned up. There were also no incidents of theft reported, and things were relatively quiet during the game.
Anyone with information is encouraged to contact police at 367-5181.