Search warrant served in East Wenatchee results in hundreds of thousands of dollars in stolen property from new constructions sites in four counties

EAST WENATCHEE - The Columbia River Drug Task Force reports that a search warrant was served on May 22, in the 100 block of North Keller in
East Wenatchee resulting in the recovery of hundreds of thousands of dollars in stolen property from new construction sites in
Chelan, Douglas, Grant and Franklin Counties. Part of the CRDTF’s expanded mission is to combat emerging crime trends in the
Wenatchee Valley. CRDTF learned of widespread theft occurring at construction sites in Chelan, Leavenworth, Wenatchee, East
Wenatchee and Rock Island going back as far as January of 2022. Detectives began compiling clues from construction contractors
and the deputies and officers that took the initial reports that the suspect vehicle appeared to be a dually style pickup truck. An
attentive citizen contacted a Hispanic male with a dually pickup truck on a job site in the Sunnyslope area off of Easy Street in the
early morning hours. The pickup truck was stuck in a ditch and the citizen wrote down the license plate which eventually made it
to law enforcement for follow up.

CRDTF began surveillance on the truck and residence on Keller Street and applied for a search warrant. On May 19, a
Douglas County Deputy on patrol, ran a license plate of a trailer being pulled by the suspect vehicle and the trailer came back
stolen out of Quincy, WA. The vehicle was stopped and a suspect was arrested for possession of stolen property. A male
passenger was identified and released at the scene. The dually pickup truck was impounded and will be seized since it was used in
the commission of a felony.

CRDTF detectives served the search warrant at the residence in the early morning hours of May 20,  and discovered a large
amount of items that had been reported stolen from Sage Homes, Real Homes, Eider Construction, Pinnacle Custom Builders,
Carlisle Classic Homes, along with numerous others. At the residence location over 12 Heat Pumps were located, 7 which had
been stolen from new construction sites in Rock Island and Sunnyslope in the last month. Thousands of dollars in stolen lumber
was recovered as well as flooring, siding, window packages, and numerous appliances. 3 stolen trailers were recovered to include
the one being towed during the traffic stop, one of which was stolen out of Franklin County, WA. The amount of property seized
took over two days to process with 4-6 detectives working 10-14 hours each day. Some of the property located was processed
and returned to the owners. Professional movers were brought in to load up all of the unclaimed property and transported to a
temporary site for processing and hopefully will be returned to the rightful owners. At this time it is believed that over 15-20
stolen property cases were closed as a result of this operation. This is believed to be one of the biggest caches of stolen property
law enforcement in our area has ever come across.

CRDTF is asking for the communities help in returning other stolen property to its rightful owners. 100’s of unopened bottles of
alcohol were also recovered and believed to be stolen as well. If you had a construction site that was burglarized or you know of a  
large amount of alcohol that was stolen please call 509-664-2310. An appointment time and location will be set up for viewing
the property.

CRDTF and its law enforcement partners would like to thank the community for assisting in this investigation. The case wouldn’t
have been successful without the help of watchful eyes from the community we serve. CRDTF is grateful and appreciative of the
teamwork and support exhibited by Wenatchee Police, East Wenatchee Police, Douglas County Sheriff’s Office, the Douglas
County Prosecutor’s Office, the Chelan County Prosecutor’s Office and the Chelan County Sheriff’s Office.

For media questions please contact Chief Chris Foreman, Commander of the Columbia River Drug Task Force at 509-630-7503.