Deputies discovered a cache of stolen goods. They need help finding where it belongs
A tip about a Wichita storage unit turned into a huge discovery for local law enforcement Tuesday: thousands of dollars of property stolen during a series of recent burglaries in and around Wichita.
The Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office now says it needs help finding the owners of around $100,000 worth of stuff — power tools, golf carts, trail cameras and generators among it.
“Approximately $70,000 worth of property has been returned” already, Col. Greg Pollock said during a Thursday morning news conference announcing the cache, which was found at 1775 S. George Washington Blvd. That property is connected to at least eight cases reported in Winfield, Bel Aire, Wichita and other parts of Sedgwick County over the past year.
The department has another $100,000 worth of property that it is attempting to return, but the owners have not yet been identified, he said.
In the coming days, Pollock said the Sheriff’s Office plans to ask members of the public who’ve had items stolen recently to come forward to claim it. People will be asked to provide proof of ownership — such as a receipt or serial numbers or photo of an item — or a police report documenting the theft before authorities will release it.
But for now, investigators are working to move and create an inventory of it all. Authorities didn’t yet have photos of any of the property available to show the public on Thursday.
“We’re still combing through police reports and obviously we’ve had to work with multiple different agencies trying to get the details of burglaries that have been reported and several that have been unreported,” Pollock said.
A second storage unit that detectives were searching for Thursday might yield more stolen property, he added.
“There’s just so much to try to get back to folks.”
Pollock said the information local detectives received from the Sumner County Sheriff’s Office about the possible location of stolen property led to the find. He stopped short of calling the thefts the work of a burglary ring — but did say that some of the people arrested are linked.
“Most of the motivation (for the burglaries) is drug-related. We have a lot of people associated through probably drug rings, specifically the drug methamphetamine,” he said.
So far 10 people have been booked into jail. They are:
- Dominic Voelker, 39, of Wichita
- Cameron Rigsby, 32, of Wichita
- Richard Navarro, 33, of Wichita
- James Sanderford, 38, who lives in Sedgwick County
- Tara Esguerra, 29, of Hutchinson
- Christopher Beaty, 29, of Wichita
- Gerald Scott Gray, 36, who lives in Sedgwick County
- Kevin McGilvray, 32, of Wichita
- Jesse Stevens, 39, of Wichita
- Michael Bull, 47, of Wichita
Some remained in law enforcement custody on Thursday morning, the Sheriff’s Office said in a news release. Others had been freed after posting bail.
Finding the cache is “a big win” for law enforcement officers who’ve spent months using what Pollock called “intelligence-led policing methods” and the help of outside agencies “to deal with the burglary problems in our area.”
He encouraged the public to make a record of their property so they have it to turn over to law enforcement in case they fall victim to a theft.
One of the easiest things people can do is take photographs of items and their serial numbers with a cellphone, he said. The Sheriff’s Office also suggests owners write their names on property or mark them in some unique way.
“In burglary cases one of the hardest things to do is to return property to its rightful owner,” Pollock said.
“A lot of times the items are not marked, the serial numbers are not recorded and the victims are unable to describe what their property is. It makes it very difficult for us to return items when they are located.”
This story was originally published February 14, 2019 at 3:26 PM.
