Detectives seeking burglary victims

Spokane County Sheriff’s detectives will hold a show-and-tell today in an effort to find more victims in a string of at least 18 burglaries from Orofino, Idaho, to Spokane.

Two men have been linked to so many burglaries that they are blamed for nearly doubling the number of incident reports last month in Spokane County, sheriff’s Sgt. Steve Barbieri said.

“We have more property that hasn’t been reported stolen. So we know there are more victims, but we just don’t know who they are yet,” Barbieri said.

Currently in custody on a city burglary case is 22-year-old Donald Myhren. The other suspect, Cole W. Shale, 25, has been charged with first-degree possession of stolen property but was released from jail, Barbieri said.

Three more felony charges are pending against Myhren and 15 more against Shale, he said.

“They are pointing the finger at each other,” Barbieri said. “They are telling us that Cole Shale is picking the houses for Myhren to burglarize. Myhren gives the stolen property to Shale, who then gives him meth in return.”

The stolen items include jewelry, credit cards, mail, financial information and anything that can be carried from homes, he said. “They ransack the house during daytime burglaries. They spend hours in the house,” Barbieri said.

Six guns have been recovered but investigators believe between 40 and 60 more firearms remain missing.

“It’s very important to find out where the guns are, so we can get them off the street and back to the owners,” he said.

Investigators with the Property Crimes Task Force want to talk to any recent victims of residential burglaries that occurred between early June and last week.

The investigation includes two reported burglaries in Orofino, one in Kamiah, Idaho, several more in Spokane, Spokane Valley and the unincorporated areas of Spokane County.

“There really is no rhyme or reason. They are scattered all over,” Barbieri said.

At 2 p.m. today, detectives will show local media a display of seized property that investigators haven’t been able to match to victims. Deputies also developed film in the hopes that homeowners will recognize the photographs.

“Cole Shale admits that it’s stolen and that he got it for selling meth. Now we are just trying to get property back to the victims,” Barbieri said.

The case against Shale started July 1 when Spokane Police Sgt. Jason Hartman called Barbieri with information from a burglary investigation in Orofino. The victims in that case had as many as 20 firearms stolen along with their credit cards.

Those cards had been used in Spokane-area stores and video cameras captured images of a person matching Shale’s description, Barbieri wrote in court documents.

Then on July 2, Barbieri was informed that Deputy Jason Petrini had arrested Shale in a 1987 Jeep Comanche truck after he was found sleeping in a parking lot near Trent and Vista.

Petrini discovered Shale was wanted for an arrest warrant out of Idaho. Petrini then searched Shale’s truck and found about 90 percent of the property reported stolen from a recent burglary. Also found in the truck were checkbooks from seven other people.

On July 6, a Secret Witness tip connected Shale with Myhren and led investigators to a storage unit in Spokane Valley that contained another stash of stolen goods, according to court records. A search of Shale’s Jeep and the storage unit found 102 pieces of jewelry, 13 jewelry boxes, 71 Great Northern Railroad pins, four checkbooks and over 200 pieces of financial paperwork.

Any residents who have been a victim of daytime residential burglaries are asked to call Barbieri at (509) 477-3711.

“He’s just selling this stuff to his friends,” Barbieri said of Shale. “He is an impact to the Spokane area with the amount of crime he’s involved in.”