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Toolbox caper ends in arrest in Edwards

Dustin Racioppi
dracioppi@vaildaily.com
Edwards, CO Colorado

EDWARDS, Colorado ” It’s hard to convince deputies that you’re innocent when you run off with a stolen toolbox that a supposed stranger handed off to you.

An Edwards man tried making that plea to deputies just before he was arrested for theft and first-degree criminal trespass of a vehicle on Jan. 15.

The man said in the sheriff’s report he was walking around a nearby trailer park when a stranger in a green sports utility vehicle asked him if he needed a ride. The two were driving around town when he said the driver spotted a van outside a business with an expensive toolbox with valuable tools inside and broke into the van to steal it.



At that point, the man said, he got out of the car, but as he exited, the driver handed the toolbox to him and drove off. The man told deputies he didn’t know what to do, and a store employee saw him, so he started running away.

The employee chased after the man across the street and through an apartment complex, but the chase ended when the man dropped the toolbox and scaled a concrete wall.

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Deputies caught the man shortly after, and brought him back to the store where the employee identified the man as the one running off with the tools.

Because his story changed a couple times during the interview ” and the fact that the owner of the green SUV said they loaned him the car to take their daughter to school, but hadn’t seen him the rest of the day ” deputies determined he was the one who stole the toolbox.

BEAVER CREEK ” Some suspected vandals may have been carrying baseballs, a football, a video tape and a coffee mug when they caused extensive damage to the Tarnes apartment complex on Jan. 15, judging from the sheriff’s report.

Deputies met with a manager at the complex, and found a trail of holes and dents in the building’s walls, and a banged-up Pepsi machine.

The sheriff’s report said there was a football-sized hole in the walkway, about 6 inches from the floor. Above that was a baseball-sized hole. In the hallway, there was a hole about the size of a video tape.

There were two marks in the stairway ” one square hole deputies described as the size of a coffee mug and a dent that looked like it was made by a fist. The damage continued to the door of one of the apartments, where another baseball-sized hole was found on one side of the door and, on the other side, a dent about the size of a deck of cards.

Deputies also saw the nearby Pepsi machine had been tampered with ” the plastic covering was torn away and the right side of the machine was busted open.

The manager told deputies he suspected the residents of the apartment with the damaged door to be the ones who trashed the area because of the proximity of the damage and the fact they were visited by deputies the night before for having a party that was too loud.

Deputies contacted the group living at the apartment, but they claimed ignorance and said one of the holes outside their apartment had been there for a few weeks.

Deputies closed the case.

Dustin Racioppi can be reached at 970-748-2936 or dracioppi@vaildaily.com.


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