From the Rossville Police Deparatment:
November 1st 2019 after midnight on the east side of Rossville: A pickup truck was stolen from the driveway of a residence. When the victim discovered the truck missing that morning, he immediately called it in. The on-duty part-time officer took the report and then passed the information along to the Lieutenant who lives nearby. A review of home security video revealed the suspects had cased the area several times before stealing the truck at 2:34am. During a follow-up interview by the Lieutenant, the victim revealed new information and told us of an additional unreported vehicle burglary with a wallet theft from the area the suspects were seen to be driving near on video.
Knowing the suspects would most likely use the credit cards from the stolen wallet at locations with video cameras, we immediately contacted the second victims. The second victims were more than happy to make a report to assist their neighbors and provided critical information that then allowed our Investigator to find the stores the suspects had used the credit cards at. During this time, Shawnee County Sheriff’s Deputies found the stolen truck and recovered it out of the Topeka area. Our fulltime officer then obtained the videos from the stores identified by the Investigator, and sent still shots to the Shawnee County Sheriff’s Detectives. Detectives sent out identification requests to area law enforcement to attempt to identify a suspect. Due to their efforts, he was identified and found to already be in a neighboring county jail (a result of additional poor life choices).
The fulltime officer went to interview the suspect at the neighboring facility and subsequently, closed the case. He will send it to the Shawnee County District Attorney’s Office for prosecution; the suspect faces multiple felony charges. The truck was returned to the rightful owner. This case is a great example of cooperation between citizens and law enforcement, as well as cooperation between different law enforcement agencies. The Rossville Police Department wishes to thank everyone involved in this incident. If everyone hadn’t done their part, the crime would not have been solved. Additional thanks to Records who enters the data we report so stolen items can be recovered, and Dispatch who keeps track of it all while sending us where we need to go.
