Electrician Has Tools To Short-Circuit Theft
Junior sleuthing and an inattentive thief’s bad luck helped a Rathdrum electrician recover his stolen tools Tuesday.
The burglary victim followed a trail of snowy footprints to the suspect and then watched as the man locked stolen merchandise - and his keys - inside a truck.
Electrician Gordon Sutton and fiancee Georgina Pew then detained the man until sheriff’s deputies arrived.
“My tools are my livelihood,” said Sutton, 41.
Deputies arrested Rex Atkinson, 31, of Post Falls, Tuesday outside the Happy Hour Bar and Grill in Huetter on burglary charges and theft. He was still in Kootenai County Jail Wednesday.
Sutton said he and Pew were sharing a drink at the Happy Hour on Seltice Way about 6 p.m. when he decided to run out and look at his truck.
“I don’t know why - a gut instinct or a seventh sense or something,” he said.
His tools - hammers, wire cutters, rolls of black and white tape - were missing. Someone had lifted an entire tan leather tool belt from his 1981 Ford pickup.
Bewildered, Sutton looked about. Like a clue from a dime store novel, a single set of steps were etched into the snow, leading from the door of his truck to the cab of another truck 30 feet away.
“I felt like a hunter tracking an animal,” he said.
Sutton grabbed a flashlight and peered inside the truck at his belongings.
He ran and asked for the truck’s owner.
When no one responded he asked the bartender to call police and returned to the truck.
There, according to sheriff’s reports, Sutton saw a man standing outside the truck with electrician’s pliers sticking out of his pockets.
The truck door was open.
Sutton confronted the man and the door closed.
Both men saw the keys on the seat.
“We told him not to move and he didn’t,” Sutton said.
Sheriff’s deputies later broke into the truck - with Atkinson’s permission - and returned Sutton’s tools.
Sheriff’s deputies reported that Atkinson admitted taking the tools and said he screwed up.
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