SATURDAY, DEC. 22
. A deputy was dispatched to speak with a business owner regarding a possible burglary and/or criminal mischief. The woman and her husband own a store, and when they came to work, they noticed a soda vending machine by the front door had been vandalized during the early morning hours. The deputy arrived at the location and found the soda machine to be badly damaged, with the money box missing. There are surveillance videos at the business, and footage was located of the incident in progress. Two men dressed in dark clothing are visible walking to the scene and activating a light with a motion sensor on it. The first man is carrying something in his right hand that appears to be a sledge hammer, the second male appears to have a hard time walking as if he is older or under the influence of something. The two men walk directly up to the vending machine, then walk over to one of the owner's trucks nearby, and both walk back toward the vending machine with something in their hands. One subject starts to hit the machine with the object. The other subject does not return into the camera's view, but at 5:02 a.m., a light colored four door pickup truck stops on the highway in front of the business. The subject who was at the vending machine comes back into view a short time after the truck stops. Two minutes later, headlights come on, and the vehicle leaves, heading west down the road and turns south going behind the business. The business owner also found that he was missing from his truck a tool set worth approximately $150 and a load bar worth approximately $50. The deputy found evidence at the scene and recorded it. As he was leaving, he found the bill acceptor from the machine along the side of the highway. Damage to the vending machine was estimated by the machine's owner at $1,500. There was probably around $20 worth of money taken out of the machine.
MONDAY, DEC. 24
. A deputy was dispatched to a business for a possible burglary. The owner of the business stated that on that same day, an employee had contacted him to say that he thought that it had been broken into. When the employee arrived, he found that the lock had been broken on the back door, and had been dropped into a bucket beside the door. He did not go any further into the business, and called another supervisory employee. This employee went to the business and opened the front door and immediately noticed that the laptop computers were missing off of the first desk. He went to his office and noticed that his computer was missing as well, and called the business' owner to let him know. In addition to the computer and laptop computers, a Canon camera was also stolen from the scene.
. A deputy was asked by dispatch to report to the Cortez Cemetery in reference to a damaged fence. The manager for the cemetery reported that someone had driven through the one-strand cable fence, damaging it and leaving behind pieces of the vehicle's grill and lights on the ground next to the damaged fence. The fence closes access to anyone other than employees to the service road east of the main section of the cemetery, and had a large "no trespass" sign on it. The deputy observed the damage and saw a number of vehicle parts on the ground, and that both fence posts were completely torn from their cement foundations with the cable still attached. The "no trespass" sign was still attached to the fence. The damage was estimated at approximately $100. The deputy collected the vehicle parts and took photos of the tire prints in the snow. The parts from the suspect vehicle appear to be from a 90's model Ford pickup truck.
SATURDAY, DEC. 29
. A deputy was dispatched to apprehend a woman at Walmart who had an active warrant for her arrest. When the deputy contacted the woman, she confirmed her identity by stating, "Yeah, that's me." She was informed that she was under arrest and told to put her hands behind her back and remain calm. The woman insisted she needed to make a phone call first and refused to obey the deputy's orders, and he was forced to hold her arm behind her back until he was able to place the handcuffs. The woman admitted that she had drug paraphernalia inside her purses and wanted to inform the deputy that the items did not belong to her. The deputy found inside the purses a black leather pouch that contained a glass pipe that the deputy recognized as a pipe commonly used for smoking methamphetamine, 13 plastic baggies and a thin metal piece. The 13 plastic baggies were found to have a white powdery substance inside which was identified by testing as methamphetamine. The woman was transported to the MSCO Dentention Center and advised of her rights, and agreed to speak with the deputy. When asked about what was in the small plastic baggies, the woman responded, "yeah, it's my meth, which I smoke because of what I am going through." She was left in the care and custody of detention center staff under a Felony hold and charged with possession of a Schedule II substance and paraphernalia. The woman requested to have her child be left under the care of her mother.
WEDNESDAY, JAN. 2
. A deputy responded to a residential address for a report of a cold theft. A woman stated that she had gone out of town for the holidays, returning on New Year's Day to discover the theft. The woman has a live-in employee and three weeks before she left town she hired a second employee to assist him with work on the property. She stated that she frequently hires younger people and students in exchange for room and board and three hours of work per day, but this particular employee was a problem from the start and did not get along with the other employee. The two were the only persons with access to her home while she was out of town. The woman had nine $100 bills in a home office, an additional $100 in petty cash, and eight $1 bills, all of which were missing. While the woman had been out of town, the newer employee's father had arrived at her home to pick his son up and take him home to California. The other employee had not been home as he had gone to a bible study class in town. The woman had originally hired the possible suspect from the Internet, and he had come from Philadelphia, Penn. for the job. The woman did not have direct proof that the young male had taken her money, but he was the only other person with access to her home, and both he and her money were gone when she returned from out of town. She was able to provide both the name of the possible suspect and his father, as well as a photo of him, to the deputy.
. A deputy met with a male reporting party at the Sheriff's Department for a report of a cold theft. The man told the deputy that he had gone out of town for the holidays, and before leaving, had purchased new tires from a tire business in Cortez. The old tires had been placed in the back of his vehicle for him to take home, and he had planned to give them to a friend. While he was gone on vacation, his friend called him and told him that he had gone to the reporting party's residence the day after Christmas to pick up the tires and they were gone. The tires were valued at about $40 each, and only three of the four tires had been taken. The man's vehicle had been parked in his driveway.