Thread: Thieves steal $1M from home

http://www.heraldextra.com/content/view/189506/3/

Thursday, August 10, 2006
Thieves steal $1M from home

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NATALIE EVANS - Daily Herald
Two high-priced watches, expensive jewelry and $15,000 in cash were discovered missing Tuesday night -- a burglary that will go down as one of the largest in Utah County history.

Detectives on Wednesday were still tallying what was missing from the Hobble Creek Canyon home, but they know the total loss will be more than $1 million. Two suspects, who worked for the victim, were found by police at their home in Jackson Hole, Wyo., on Wednesday.

"In my 30-year history, I've never heard of anything that approached that dollar value for a burglary," said Utah County Sheriff Jim Tracy.

The burglary was reported at the Hobble Creek home at 11:30 p.m. Tuesday, Utah County Sheriff's Sgt. Dennis Harris said. Officers believe the burglary happened between 10:30 p.m. and 11 p.m.

"It's not that it was real big items, they were actually small items that could be concealed very easily," Harris said.

Though the Sheriff's Office isn't revealing many details about the crime for the victim's safety, they said two of the items missing were watches -- a Rolex and a Bentley.

"At this point in time, we're a little concerned in releasing that due to the dollar value on the items that were taken," Tracy said.

The burglary appears to be an inside job. The two suspects, a 31-year-old man and a 26-year-old man, worked for the victim, police said.

On Tuesday, the men were moving the victim's belongings from Jackson Hole, Wyo., to Hobble Creek Canyon.

"It's our understanding that she has had a history with these guys before, where they have assisted her," Harris said. "At that time there must have been some trust between them."

Because they had a working relationship, the victim trusted the men enough to let them in her home.

Harris said the men did not move the valuables from Wyoming; the victim had them with her. The suspects were not supposed to be in the area of the home where the valuables were kept.

"While they were at the house, there were some other people working, and they actually observed these guys go into one of the rooms, go into the area that had the expensive jewelry in there," Harris said.

After the crime was reported, officers issued an attempt to locate alert Tuesday night for the suspects in Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Nevada, California, Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico.

"At the time that we first sent that out, we had not determined that route of direction for the suspects," Tracy said.

Once the two suspects were located, detectives from Utah County flew there to interview them at their home.

Immigration officials have also been involved in the investigation because the suspects are believed to be illegal immigrants. Tracy said they already were deported once to Mexico and came back.

Though the two suspects have been found, Harris isn't optimistic about the items being recovered soon.

"If, in fact, these guys did take it, they could have hid it anywhere between here and Wyoming," he said. The suspects were reportedly driving separate white Ford Econoline vans with Wyoming license plates.

Natalie Evans can be reached at 344-2561 or nevans@heraldextra.com.

Because they had a working relationship, the victim trusted the men enough to let them in her home.

I'm a little torn on feeling sorry for the victim, and not feeling sorry for them. Its bad that this happened to them, on the other hand, it serves them right for hiring possible illegal labor.

I'm sure many stories like this don't reach national headline news.

Sorry but no sympathy here.

Sounds like these people had enough money to do background checks on anybody they hire. They should have used it.

Now taxpayers have to pay the cost of apprehending and prosecuting these illegals.