Carson City men face burglary charges after attempting to steal video games, camera at Kohl's
Submitted by editor on Wed, 12/01/2010 - 1:14pm
Three Carson City men were arrested after allegedly trying to steal video games and a camera from Kohl's, with one man acting as a lookout using a cell phone while two others attempted to take the property.
Tanner Jordan Rust, 20; Joseph Mills, 18, and Kenneth Burden, 20 were arrested on Tuesday and are in the Carson City Jail. Rust and Mills each face felony attempted burglary charges. Bail was set at $2,500 each. Burden faces a gross misdemeanor charge of conspiracy to burglarize. His bail was also set at $2,500.
Officers arrived at Kohl's, located in the 3800 block of Carson Street after a report of a larceny in progress, according to the arrest report. As officers arrived they made contact with two of the suspects, Burden and Mills in front of the store who matched the description provided by store security.
An officer searched the men with permission with nothing being recovered. Another deputy went inside the store, where Rust was said to be in the store bathroom.
Mills and Burden were detained and cuffed. They were read their rights in which they waived and were asked by police if they knew why they were detained.
Both Mills and Burden stated they had no idea why there were in handcuffs and stated that they were just at the store to look around without an intention to buy anything, according to the arrest report.
Kohl's store security met with officers and stated that Rust was observed grabbing four video games from the shelves and seen ducking behind a clothes rack and then stripping the games out of their protective covering, according to the arrest report.
Store security stated Mills was observed grabbing a digital camera from a rack and was observed stripping the camera out of its package while behind a separate clothing rack. The security officer stated Burden served as a "lookout" for Rust and Mills and was observed walking the aisle near the area where the men were removing the items from their packaging, possibly communicating with them by cell phone as the men removed items from the packaging.
Deputies reviewed security camera footage and saw this to support the security officer's claim, according to the arrest report. The security officer stated he was dressed in a plain clothes which didn't identify him as a store employee and he was able to stay in close proximity to the three suspects, the arrest report stated.
The security officer said the three men had moved toward the front of the store to exit, however when they saw the patrol car two of then men discard the stolen property and then left the store when they were contacted out front by officers. Rust walked toward the bathroom where he was later contacted by a deputy.
Loss Prevention was able to find where the suspects had dropped the stolen property. Mills and Rust agreed to go back into the store and show officers where they had dropped the property. After the property was recovered it amounted to four Wii Game Console videos games valued at $107.43 and a DXG digital camera, valued at $139.71.
Rust also faces a misdemeanor charge of violating probation and Burden faces an additional misdemeanor charge of being in violation of a suspended sentence.
