Police nab trio of north Spokane burglars

Author: Jeff Humphrey, KXLY4 Reporter , jeffhu@kxly.com
Published On: Nov 02 2012 07:04:38 PM PDT
Jeremy Hall, Billy Olson and Reuben Miller
SPOKANE, Wash. -

Spokane police are crediting alert neighbors with helping them track down a trio of burglars allegedly responsible for a series of north Spokane break-ins.

Jeremy Hall, Billy Olson and Reuben Miller: Spokane Police say they are the faces of the people who come in the night and leave behind piles of broken glass and battered locks. Only this time, however, investigators say the trio got careless and looked just too suspicious as they prowled Shadle Park and Indian Trail alleys.

"These guys were going down the alleys and park, and get out and walk around, so it wasn't that strange that people thought it looked like suspicious activity but they did call us on it," Sergeant Joe Peterson with the Spokane Police Anti-Crime Team said.

The neighbors told police dispatchers the thieves were driving a blue pickup truck, which had been stolen when the same group of burglars broke into Clinton Renshaw's garage by kicking in the door.

"Yeah, see what I do with my garage is I keep hard copies of my keys copies in a locked tool box that way if I ever lose a copy I've got them there when I'm working on my rigs. Lesson learned there now," Renshaw said.

Police say that once Hall, Olson and Miller had the truck they committed a series of north side burglaries, filling the bed with things like stolen tires and snow blowers. Members of the Police Anti-Crime Team were assigned the case early Wednesday morning and just hours later pulled over the Dodge in the Value Village parking lot.

"That is the whole concept of the PACT team is that we dress like this, we drive regular cars and we can respond immediately to things," Peterson explained.

Having put the trio behind bars, police hope the court will set a high enough bail to keep them there.

"The way to reduce burglaries is to keep burglars in jail, 'cause when they are out there they are victimizing people every day. They gotta buy dope," Peterson said.

Sergeant Peterson said the dope in question in this case is heroin. While the price of everything else in this world had gone up heroin is more affordable than every before and unfortunately is still highly addictive.