Officer Recovers Own Goods
It’s a tale burglars should know: Don’t steal from a cop.
Three weeks ago thieves broke into a Dalton Gardens storage unit and stole property owned by Coeur d’Alene Police Capt. Carl Bergh.
Thursday, Bergh stopped by to see if storage units next to his had been hit. While chatting with a young couple, he glanced inside their unit and saw some familiar stuff - apparently his own.
Bergh quickly identified a scraped and discolored portable toilet, one he’s owned for years.
“It’s an unusual item I’ve used off and on in my boat,” Bergh said. “I told the guy it looked like mine and he said he’d had it a long time.”
A few minutes later the man, Edward Leroy Box, 24, changed his story and said he didn’t know where the portable potty had come from. Bergh called the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Department, and the young couple were arrested.
“I knew it was mine because it had this blue scrape on the cover and I remember once bumping it against something blue,” Bergh said.
Bergh said he also was suspicious when Box pointed to a black topcoat in his own unit and said he’d never seen it before. The coat had a retailer’s tag showing it had an imperfection and had been discarded.
Box and Christine L. Porter, 24, both of Coeur d’Alene, were booked into jail Thursday on charges of grand theft and possession of stolen property. Each was still in jail Friday. Bail was set at $10,000 and $5,000 respectively.
Bergh has since recovered about half of his belongings, including snow skis, family papers and a bedspread. But he was not alone.
A lock had been cut off at least one other storage unit using bolt cutters - the same approach used to get into Bergh’s unit.
“There appears, at least, to be a connection,” Bergh said.
In 24 hours of investigation authorities said they have found more than two pickup trucks full of stolen merchandise in the couple’s three storage sheds. Late Thursday, the two trucks were towed away full of stuff, said Kootenai County Sheriff Capt. Ben Wolfinger.
Late Friday, deputies had not finished an inventory of the stolen merchandise. They planned to contact storage unit owners who had reported other missing items. , DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo