GRANTS PASS, Ore. -- In an encore performance of a December bust, Grants Pass police used a suspected burglar's radio to nab him and two other suspects during a recent theft attempt.
At 4:13 a.m. on Jan. 20, police received a report of a suspicious person with a radio, according to a report in the (Grants Pass) Daily Courier.
Police detained the man, 37-year-old Jimmy Dale Houston and, posing as him in a conversation on his two-way radio, determined that a burglary was in progress at a nearby tavern.
After surrounding the building, police used the radio to tell both suspects to come out with their hands up. The burglars had broken into a safe and an ATM inside the tavern.
Tom Pepple, president of Medford, Ore.-based Retail Profit Systems, Inc., the E*Trade distributor that installed the ATM, said that the men destroyed the machine while trying to pry open the safe -- which contained just $100.
"I'm the ISO and tech who had the pleasure of finishing their job. They tried to pry open the safe so they tweaked the cabinet to a point where we had to saw it open to retrieve the $100," Pepple wrote in an e-mail. "Had I been on the clock, I would have charged (the owners) $150 in labor and travel, but I'm a nice guy and did it for free. I installed a loaner while they make an insurance claim and we get them a new ATM."
Houston was arrested on a second-degree charge of burglary, first-degree charges of criminal mischief and attempted theft, and other charges of conspiracy and violating probation.
Also arrested were 20-year-old David Wesley Jones and 19-year-old Matthew Adam Jefferson, who face similar charges.
On Dec. 30, Grants Pass police used another suspected burglar's radio to fool two accomplices trying to break into a military surplus store, according to the Daily Courier.
