Home Burglar Made Certain He Had His V-8

A burglar stole guns and other items from a home, plus a six-pack of V-8 juice from the refrigerator.

The theft occurred between 6:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. July 14 in the 19700 block of Deep Creek Road.

The owner of the home told sheriff’s deputies the burglar kicked in the front door and ransacked drawers.

Taken were a .32-caliber Winchester rifle valued at $500; a .30-caliber Remington rifle, $400; a .308 Savage rifle with scope, $150; a 12-gauge Western Family shotgun, $75; an antique Hopkins Allen 12-gauge shotgun of unknown value; and a .410 shotgun, $100.

Also taken were an antique radio, a television set, videocassette recorder, binoculars and a global positioning device, altogether valued at $1,550.

Several checkbooks were also missing. Deputies have no suspects at this time.

Intruder reported in house

Someone entered an empty house in Rockford the afternoon of July 11 and may have returned later in the day, sheriff’s deputies said.

A neighbor who has been looking after the house since the owner died earlier in the month told sheriff’s deputies she returned home about 2:30 p.m. to discover that an upstairs window of the house was open.

She checked the house but found no one inside and nothing missing.

Later in the day another neighbor saw someone standing in an upstairs window. The witness described the intruder as 17 or 18 years old, 6 feet tall, 180 pounds, with a shaved head and acne.

Storage building burglarized

Someone burglarized a storage building in the 1600 block of South Lewis sometime between midnight and 6:30 a.m. Monday.

Sheriff’s deputies were told that two chain saws, a mountain bike, and a compressor were missing.

The victim told deputies he couldn’t remember if he’d locked the storage building’s door.

The value of the missing items was estimated at $1,000.

Bomb found in mailbox

A homemade bomb inside a mailbox in the 7000 block of South Waneta Road fizzled and failed to explode, sheriff’s deputies said.

The bomb, the size and shape of a large cigar, was placed inside the mailbox sometime between 4 p.m. July 7 and 6 a.m. July 8, said Dave Reagan, sheriff’s deputy spokesman.

Reagan warned anyone who finds such a device not to handle it.

“Give us a call, and we’ll dispose of it,” he said.

Hoops players steal boy’s bicycle

Four men who joined a 15-year-old boy for a game of basketball stole his bike when the game ended, sheriff’s deputies said.

The boy told deputies he’d been playing basketball at Garden Springs Elementary, 5116 W. Garden Springs Road, about 10 p.m. July 13, when four white men in their 20s asked to join him. The boy said the four appeared to be intoxicated, deputies said.

When the game was over, the boy said he got on his bike to ride home but was pushed off by one of the men while the other three watched, deputies reported.

One of the men put the boy’s bike into the back of a red and white Ford Bronco, which had a Washington license plate, deputies said.

The man who grabbed the bike is described as 5-foot-10 and 180 pounds with dark hair.

The boy’s Mongoose Menace chrome-colored bike is valued at $250, deputies said.

, DataTimes