A rash of burglaries plague the county

By PATSY STODDARD Editor

The Emery County Sheriff’s Office has been dealing with a rash of burglaries on the northern end of the county. Detective Sgt. Robert Blackburn said the burglaries have mostly been in the Huntington area. The sheriff’s office had an idea of who the suspects were and were investigating the burglaries and gathering enough evidence for a search warrant.
The theft of a bicycle which was handled by Sgt. Gayle Jensen also led to the gathering of more information and Sgt. Jensen collaborated with the detectives, Sgt. Blackburn and Sgt. Norm Vuksinick and also Deputy Clayton Bell was involved with the investigation.
Three 25 year old suspects from the Huntington area were brought in for questioning. The suspects confessed to the burglaries. One of the burglaries was at the San Rafael Research business in Huntington where computers were stolen. The storage sheds in Huntington were broken into and a generator and other items were stolen.
At the Huntington Rock Ridge apartment complex a truck was burglarized and several guns were taken from the truck. The guns were later found thrown off a cliff in Huntington Canyon. Those guns were recovered. These thieves also admitted to stealing diesel fuel from Nielson’s Construction in the Buffalo Bench area.
Firearms were also taken from a vehicle in Elmo. A stereo was also stolen in the Elmo area.
“It was quite the crime spree,” said Sgt. Blackburn. “We have been able to recover a lot of the stolen items and now we must work through who these items belong to so we can get them back to their owners.”
The county attorney’s office has evaluated all of the evidence and charged the parties involved with auto burglary, theft of firearms and burglary of a dwelling. Other charges are pending and the parties names will be released when the final charges are filed and the investigation is complete.
In unrelated incidents BKs Stop-n-Shop in Huntington was burglarized. A window was broken at the store and it is believed the robber hid in the store at closing time as it appeared the window was broken from the inside out. In this incident tobacco products were taken as well as candy items.
Another burglary took place at the Headquarters convenience store in Castle Dale. The glass on the front window was broken and items taken from the store.
Emery County Sheriff LaMar Guymon said, “We need to educate our county residents to keep their property locked up and their vehicles need to be locked up at night especially. Never leave a firearm in your vehicle. Lock your houses and garages and storage sheds. Even though we live in a rural area, we have quite a problem with theft. A lot of these thefts are crimes of opportunity. If things are locked up then it really does deter the thief. Some of the guns recovered hadn’t even been reported as stolen. The owners didn’t think we would ever find them. So make sure if you have items come up missing that you report it.”