Valley man arrested in thefts

Deputies sorted through tools, hardware, appliances and even a kitchen sink Wednesday at the Spokane Valley home of a man they believe stole construction supplies worth tens of thousands of dollars from unfinished houses.

“The house is just full of stuff,” said sheriff’s Sgt. Dave Reagan.

Behind him, officers were busy cataloging and removing dozens of items from a modest but newly remodeled house at Alki Avenue and Bessie Road.

The search followed the arrest of the home’s 32-year-old owner, Jesse D. Coughlin, about 2 a.m. the same day.

In the backyard, deputies found a water heater, stacks of lumber and 30 ladders, many with the names or initials of construction firms written on them, Reagan said. Six air compressors were found in the garage. Custom-ordered windows found at the residence were from a construction site in Post Falls, he said.

A small box truck in the driveway also held power tools that Reagan said someone had scratched the serial numbers from – a crime in Washington.

“Everything in there is high-end and new,” Reagan said of the various fixtures and other items inside the house. Even a microwave and a range installed in the kitchen were believed to be stolen and were removed by deputies.

Coughlin’s house was already being watched by property crimes detectives because of information gleaned from a man suspected of stealing items from Evergreen Elementary School last summer while working as a janitor there.

While driving through a new subdivision near Barker Road and Trent Avenue early Wednesday, Deputy Travis Pendell saw Coughlin and Andrew C. Niccolls, 29, enter a house under construction, Reagan said. Both were arrested on suspicion of second-degree burglary after Pendell saw they had moved tools toward the door.

By Wednesday afternoon, three construction companies had been contacted about items recovered from the house. The other supplies were hauled away in a large trailer, and the department may have to rent a storage space for them while investigators sort them out, Reagan said.

While housing construction has accelerated in recent years, so have thefts at new home sites.

“We were just getting hammered with construction site burglaries,” Reagan said. To date, 221 have been reported in the county this year.

Stolen goods, such as expensive doorknobs or extension cords cut up for the copper inside them, are hard to track; in many cases, there’s little that the construction companies can do about the cost.

“You can’t charge it back to anybody; you just eat it,” said Jeremy Taylor as he picked up a vacuum, scaffolding and power tools he identified at the house.

Unfinished houses in the Highland Estates subdivision were burglarized three times last summer, Taylor said. Thieves took flooring, light fixtures, tools and even the wheels off a dump trailer.

“They actually stole the front door one time,” Taylor said.

It was unclear Wednesday how many burglaries Coughlin was believed to be connected to or how many charges would be leveled against him.

A 3-foot-tall marijuana plant also was found growing in the house, Reagan said.