SYRACUSE, Utah (ABC 4 News) – A ring of thieves, on a rampage in quiet Utah bedroom communities. Police say they're stealing everything from golf clubs to guns.
The evidence locker at Syracuse police headquarters is now a garage filled with tool chests and toys, floor fans, fishing poles and flat screen TVs, motorcycles and mountain bikes. And you can’t help but notice furniture and large appliances – washers and dryers and refrigerators. Police detectives say this is only part of the bounty stolen by a major operation.
"It's definitely dozens of people working together, going out and committing all kinds of burglaries," says Syracuse Police Sergeant Heath Rogers.
Crime Tracker shows 147 thefts in Syracuse during the past 30 days. Police say dozens of these incidents are the work of the theft ring.
"They're hitting houses in the middle of the day. They'll go out and scout around neighborhoods and look for easy targets."
Syracuse residents are giving thieves what they're looking for. Garage doors, wide open, unknowingly advertising their contents, owners, unaware they're being watched.
We drove two blocks and found 15 open garage doors. Inside one of them, valuable merchandise, on display - china cabinet, a set of tires, and a refrigerator. Syracuse police say the thieves look closely at these storage buildings, where they often find guns and ammo in storage.
Thieves are also hitting storage units where there are no security cameras. They cut the gate locks, replace them with their own combination locks, sift through the contents of all the units, call for trucks and drive away with tens of thousands of dollars worth of merchandise.
Police have suspects in their sights and say they may be days away from shutting down one of northern Utah's worst ring of criminals.
They are urging victims in Davis and Weber counties to call their local police to report the crimes.
To find out what crime is happening where you live, work or shop, click on the Crime Tracker link in the orange box on the Abc4.com home page.
