Three accused of stealing property in South Lake Tahoe during, after Caldor Fire evacuation
Submitted by Jeff Munson on Sun, 09/19/2021 - 11:05am
The Caldor Fire Law Enforcement Security Team and the El Dorado County Sheriff's Office have spent the past several days investigating several crimes attributed to one person who is now accused of committing dozens of crimes on the South Shore during the recent State of Emergency. They also arrested a couple after a month-long investigation into local crimes.
On September 17, 37-year-old Joseph Donald Dykes of South Lake Tahoe was arrested and booked for a probation violation. Dykes is facing additional charges of theft, grand theft, possession of stolen property and theft during a state of emergency.
There are no reports that these crimes occurred during the evacuation period and El Dorado County Sheriff's Office said it appears once evacuation zones were repopulated, Dykes began his spree.
Law enforcement has been working to catch a looter who committed dozens of thefts from vehicles, garages, and structures in the evacuation zones, and stole at least two vehicles in the South Lake Tahoe area.
EDSO deputies disrupted the suspect during an early morning crime spree Friday. Dykes was caught while fleeing a neighborhood in the Pioneer Trail corridor into the forest near Saxton Creek.
After days of chasing investigative leads and conducting probation searches, the team has recovered tens of thousands of dollars in stolen property including a stolen SUV and a stolen motorcycle. EDSO has returned a significant amount of stolen property to the owners, and still have a lot of unclaimed property whose owners have not been identified.
Earlier in the week, on September 14, married couple Christopher and Kody Whitehead, were arrested and booked for suspicion of residential burglary and conspiracy. Kody was also booked for suspicion of possession of stolen property and identity theft. These thefts allegedly happened during the evacuation.
On Sept. 14, a month-long vehicle burglary investigation results in the arrest of a couple in South Lake Tahoe.
El Dorado County Sheriff's deputies were investigating cases in Meyers for vehicle related theft, burglary. They tracked the trail of the burglary suspects and ultimately conducted surveillance of a hotel room booked with a stolen credit card. The suspects were found to be in possession of numerous stolen IDs, bank cards and fraudulent purchase receipts from their crimes.
The case is still under investigation.
In early September, several arrests were made after a number of South Lake Tahoe residents were caught looting during the mandatory evacuation order. See story here.
EDSO Sgt. Eric Palmberg said the three suspects are related but did not act together in the crimes and the Whiteheads and Dykes acted independently.
If anyone in the county has been a victim of theft and, or is missing property from the last four days in the South Lake Tahoe area, we ask you contact Deputy Earl at 530-663-3364, or by email at earlc@edso.org. EDSO has valuable property in their possession that can possibly be identified by additional victims.
EDSO is also getting reports of found property in the affected neighborhoods. If citizens discover items hidden in the area or on their property, please call the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office for investigation as there are numerous outstanding stolen items.
