Fresh snow foils thieves

Mother Nature helped nab two thieves early Thursday morning after police followed footprints in fresh snow right to them.

An officer saw a man pushing a snow thrower down the sidewalk on the South Hill just before 1:30 a.m. He followed the man’s tracks back to a garage in the 1000 block of West 11th Avenue, where the homeowner confirmed that the machine belonged to her, according to a police press release.

Gregory A. Scott, 35, was arrested on suspicion of second-degree burglary.

About 30 minutes later two officers were in the Audubon/Finch neighborhood when they noticed a set of tracks in the snow that led to every car on the street. They continued following the tracks until they found a man inside a vehicle that wasn’t his in the 3200 block of West Providence, the press release said.

It appears that the man had prowled four different cars, but the tracks revealed that he tried the car doors of at least 30 more vehicles to see if they were unlocked.

The officers arrested Phillip A. Smith, 58, on four counts of vehicle prowling.