February 3, 2012

Wichita police say a burglar wanted for a string of crimes was caught in the act Thursday night. Officers believe the thief is responsible for ten separate burglaries since November.

The warehouse at Shamrock Tire is just about full again. The only sign the business was ripped off is the patch job on the back wall.

“When we got here both pieces of the wall were folded open and he had a stack of tires holding both flaps back out of the way,” Shamrock Tire Sales Employee Eric Kovacich said.

Kovacich says the tire thief took his time, spending more than an hour inside the warehouse after he broke in.

“We think he was shopping by a list,” Kovacich said.

As soon as he cut through the back wall, Kovacich says the burglar passed up several stacks of tires that were sitting right there.

“If he was going to do that he would have just grabbed what was in front of the hole and booked,” Kovacich said.

Instead Kovacich says the thief moved those out of the way and started roaming up and down the aisles, searching for top shelf merchandise.

“There was only sets; no singles, no odd balls, and no cheap stuff just high end premium tires,” Kovacich said.

While the burglar shopped around the warehouse, police sat a safe distance away, watching and waiting. Officers say they've been searching for a thief for months, who has a unique method of breaking locks.

Last night, officers staked out a few locations they thought their burglar might hit. One of those was Shamrock Tire.

“Yeah they were spot on, they did a bang up job last night and get some kudos from the guys at shamrock,” Kovacich said about police officers.

Police say they followed the tire thief back to a house in the 4100 block of West Second Street. Kovacich says officers later brought him to that house, where he found more than $10,000 worth of tires stolen from their warehouse.

“Stacks of tires all over his garage and the back of his truck,” Kovacich said.

Police arrested the 44 year old man they followed to the house on West Second Street and charged him with burglary. They also say they arrested his accomplice who was at the house, and charged him with possession of stolen goods.