Seven Arrested For String Of Home, Car Burglaries Young Adults Dubbing Themselves ‘The Three Amigos’ Admit Break-Ins

They communicated through electronic headsets, dressed in black, wore gloves and targeted occupied homes.

Within a month, a veteran detective says, the four young people who dubbed themselves The Three Amigos had perpetrated what he says is the biggest burglary and theft case he had investigated.

They and three cohorts have been arrested, and tens of thousands of dollars worth of jewelry, guns, stereo equipment and other items have been seized, Cowlitz County sheriff’s detective Joe Reiss said.

The group typically disabled telephone lines and motion detector lights before entering homes, he said. Sometimes they burglarized cars. They hit one area after another.

“They’re very lucky that some guy with a gun didn’t wake up and take them out,” Reiss said. “When you’re doing residential, occupied burglaries, you’re taking your life in your hands out here.”

Afterward, many of the homes were spray-painted with their gang name. Sometimes they sent the victims thank-you notes.

“They were just out playing. It was an excitement thing - and usually, the guys that do that, it’s a downward spiral. They just do it till they get caught. They never stop.

“It was more a challenge of how many vehicle prowls and how much they could steal than how much money they were getting,” Reiss said.

Belinda May Monson, 22, was the driver and lookout, and the break-ins were done by Melissa Louise Bales, 18, Nicholas R. Nelson, 17, and Kenneth Dean Stout, 19, he said.

They have confessed to 16 vehicle prowls and five burglaries in Cowlitz County and three burglaries each in Lewis County and in Rainier, Ore., between Sept. 18 and Oct. 13, Reiss said.

Also arrested were Monson’s brother, James Monson, 19, John Wayne Thomas, 22, and his brother, James Richard Thomas, 28.

James Monson sold some of the stolen items to the Thomases, but the group lacked an efficient disposal system and “never really got any good, big payoff,” Reiss said. “It was like 20 bucks here, 50 bucks there. They were just using it to buy food and gas for the car, cigarettes.”

Nonetheless, he described it as the biggest theft case he had investigated in his 16 years on the force.

“Nelson did the cars and Bales did the houses,” Reiss said. “She would go in first, usually (into) an occupied house,” and the others would follow.

Remaining in the car, Belinda Monson would alert the others on their headsets to any police activity, he said.

Their favorite loot was jewelry, purses, wallets and certain types of car stereo gear.

“They wouldn’t even steal a cassette player,” Reiss said. “If it wasn’t a CD player, they wouldn’t steal it.”

On Oct. 13, as a deputy was investigating a Kelso-area burglary, Bradly Phillips, a visitor to the area whose car had been burglarized, provided the license plate number of a car he had seen.

Deputies traced the car to Monson and noticed a stolen sheriff’s office radio at the home she shared with Nelson and Bales.

The foursome subsequently confessed, and Monson and Bales also admitted charging more than $2,500 on a stolen credit card, Reiss said.

In addition, deputies served a search warrant at the home of Monson’s brother in Kelso and jailed him for investigation of first-degree possession of stolen property. He was released after posting $1,000 bail.