Post by WaTcHeR on Jan 17, 2006 13:25:33 GMT -5
01/16/2006 - Indiana State Police have recovered three of the items taken late Jan. 4 or early Jan. 5 when a state police detective's vehicle was broken into in Indianapolis.
This past Tuesday, state troopers recovered a stolen Colt M-4 .223-caliber rifle and a bulletproof vest during a raid on a rural Benton County property. On Sunday, they recovered a .40-caliber Beretta semiautomatic pistol in Indianapolis.
1st Sgt. David Bursten of the state police said the pistol was found about 4:40 p.m. in the yard of a residence in the 100 block of South Harris Street on the near west side of Indianapolis. The resident called police after finding the weapon.
Bursten said state police were most concerned about recovering the two firearms taken in the theft. Also taken were a second bulletproof vest, a laptop computer, a police radio that has since been disabled and other police-related equipment.
"We're ecstatic that both those weapons are off the street," Bursten said.
The rifle and one bulletproof vest were recovered Tuesday (Jan. 10), when a state police emergency response team served warrants on a cluster of buildings around the old Lochiel grain elevator northeast of Fowler.
Police found the stolen items in the third of three residences they searched. But Bursten said police have yet to make any arrests related to the theft or the recovery of the items.
David Gaylord, a neighbor of the property where the stolen items were found in Lochiel, has to replace a door that was broken when state police served the initial search warrant Tuesday morning. Gaylord questions what he sees as an overly aggressive and imprecise raid by state police.
Gaylord said he had left home early that morning for an appointment at the Veterans Administration hospital in Danville, Ill., and was not home when the state police emergency response team served the warrant.
He said officers broke the locked door of his mobile home and put a major scare into his 84-year-old neighbor, who was outside checking her propane tank when the "storm troopers" arrived, sat her in a police vehicle and searched her house.
"That just scared (the neighbor) to death," Gaylord said. "I got back here about 3:30, and she could still barely talk."
If the Benton County prosecutor's office had checked with the sheriff's department before obtaining the original warrant, Gaylord said, police would have known not to bother him or his elderly neighbor.
Gaylord said the sheriff's department would have known who lives where in the Lochiel area and that neither he nor the woman had anything to do with the police investigation.
"Why would they sign a search warrant for these two places, which had nothing to do with it?" Gaylord said.
Bursten said the damage to Gaylord's mobile home will be paid for. He said the force used in issuing the search warrant was necessary because police considered the recovery of the weapons a life and death situation.
"We would rather have a busted door than a dead citizen," Bursten said.
Benton County prosecutor Jud Barce, who obtained the original search warrant for state police, said police used a satellite image to identify the residences they wanted to search. Neither he nor Bursten knew whether state police consulted the sheriff's department while gathering information about the targets of the search.
"We were looking for a vehicle, but we didn't know with which residence the owner of the vehicle was staying," Barce said.
The original warrant, of which Gaylord kept a copy, gave state police permission to search his mobile home, his elderly neighbor's house and a 1979 Cadillac belonging to another neighbor. The Cadillac was not at the scene, Gaylord said.
The original warrant did not include the residence of that third neighbor, where the stolen items later were found after another warrant was issued through Benton Circuit Court.
This past Tuesday, state troopers recovered a stolen Colt M-4 .223-caliber rifle and a bulletproof vest during a raid on a rural Benton County property. On Sunday, they recovered a .40-caliber Beretta semiautomatic pistol in Indianapolis.
1st Sgt. David Bursten of the state police said the pistol was found about 4:40 p.m. in the yard of a residence in the 100 block of South Harris Street on the near west side of Indianapolis. The resident called police after finding the weapon.
Bursten said state police were most concerned about recovering the two firearms taken in the theft. Also taken were a second bulletproof vest, a laptop computer, a police radio that has since been disabled and other police-related equipment.
"We're ecstatic that both those weapons are off the street," Bursten said.
The rifle and one bulletproof vest were recovered Tuesday (Jan. 10), when a state police emergency response team served warrants on a cluster of buildings around the old Lochiel grain elevator northeast of Fowler.
Police found the stolen items in the third of three residences they searched. But Bursten said police have yet to make any arrests related to the theft or the recovery of the items.
David Gaylord, a neighbor of the property where the stolen items were found in Lochiel, has to replace a door that was broken when state police served the initial search warrant Tuesday morning. Gaylord questions what he sees as an overly aggressive and imprecise raid by state police.
Gaylord said he had left home early that morning for an appointment at the Veterans Administration hospital in Danville, Ill., and was not home when the state police emergency response team served the warrant.
He said officers broke the locked door of his mobile home and put a major scare into his 84-year-old neighbor, who was outside checking her propane tank when the "storm troopers" arrived, sat her in a police vehicle and searched her house.
"That just scared (the neighbor) to death," Gaylord said. "I got back here about 3:30, and she could still barely talk."
If the Benton County prosecutor's office had checked with the sheriff's department before obtaining the original warrant, Gaylord said, police would have known not to bother him or his elderly neighbor.
Gaylord said the sheriff's department would have known who lives where in the Lochiel area and that neither he nor the woman had anything to do with the police investigation.
"Why would they sign a search warrant for these two places, which had nothing to do with it?" Gaylord said.
Bursten said the damage to Gaylord's mobile home will be paid for. He said the force used in issuing the search warrant was necessary because police considered the recovery of the weapons a life and death situation.
"We would rather have a busted door than a dead citizen," Bursten said.
Benton County prosecutor Jud Barce, who obtained the original search warrant for state police, said police used a satellite image to identify the residences they wanted to search. Neither he nor Bursten knew whether state police consulted the sheriff's department while gathering information about the targets of the search.
"We were looking for a vehicle, but we didn't know with which residence the owner of the vehicle was staying," Barce said.
The original warrant, of which Gaylord kept a copy, gave state police permission to search his mobile home, his elderly neighbor's house and a 1979 Cadillac belonging to another neighbor. The Cadillac was not at the scene, Gaylord said.
The original warrant did not include the residence of that third neighbor, where the stolen items later were found after another warrant was issued through Benton Circuit Court.
