Men charged in phone booth theft

TWIN FALLS, Idaho – Drive-off robberies are common at gas stations in Twin Falls, so much so that the city became the first in Idaho to require customers pay before they start pumping gas.

But two Twin Falls men are facing preliminary hearings within a month for a drive-off robbery of a different sort.

Witnesses at the Chevron station on U.S. Highway 93 near town said they saw two men use their van to rip a phone booth free from its foundation on Feb. 28.

The Twin Falls County prosecutor’s office filed charges of felony grand theft against Arthur Nickell, 31 and Gregory Nohrenberg, 26.

A store videotape recording the crime showed a van near the phone booth and two men getting out and chaining the phone to the vehicle, according to an affidavit by Twin Falls County sheriff’s Deputy Jeffry Haskell.

Deputies linked Nickell to the van through the license plate.

Upon questioning, both men blamed the other for the majority of involvement in the crime.

Nickell said he was asleep in the van when the crime happened, but awoke to the jolt and helped Nohrenberg put the phone in the back of the van, the affidavit said.

But Nohrenberg said Nickell made him help in the theft.

Nohrenberg said they helped each other break into the phone to reap the coins inside, but were unable to do so.