CNHI —
It was a classic case of caught in the act as two adults from a family of five received multiple criminal counts Thursday after a home burglary attempt the day before in the Stratford area.
After a resident came home literally in the middle of a burglary at her rural house, authorities quickly corralled the suspects and learned the two men, another teenager and two young children at the scene were all related.
In the end it was James Biegler, 31, and his nephew, Curtis Green, 19, who were the target of the handful of charges filed in Garvin County District Court.
Also there were Green’s 17-year-old girlfriend and their two children, one nearly 2 years old and other just under 1. All five of the individuals are residents of the Ft. Worth, Texas area.
All five were at a residence southwest of Stratford where Garvin County and Stratford officials responded to after being contacted Wednesday morning about a burglary in progress.
“The homeowner came home and saw her TV on her patio,” Garvin County Lt. Travis Crawford said.
“She also saw a window raised up and a vehicle on her property that wasn’t supposed to be there.”
Attached to the vehicle was a trailer holding a tractor, both earlier taken from a storage building located near the residence.
The first county deputies and Stratford police at the scene reported seeing two men going through a storage building. Both men, later identified as Biegler and Green, took off running but were quickly run down and taken into custody. The teen girl and two young children were found in a vehicle parked near the residence.
Also quickly found was the evidence of a crime as several items taken from the residence were inside the suspects’ vehicle.
“We found a lot of items in the vehicle just recently removed from the house or storage building,” Crawford said.
Items such as a large screen TV, computers and guns included an estimated value of about $30,000.
Also found inside the vehicle were a number of items taken about a week earlier from a residential theft in Texas. In that theft more than $100,000 worth of items was taken.
“Some of his property in that theft matched some of the items we found in their vehicle. We got some of the small items from that burglary,” he said.
“I’m convinced this is not their first time coming up here and randomly picking a residence. They may be related to other thefts in this county or surrounding counties.”
The deputy is hoping even more can be learned about these suspects just by the description of their vehicle, which was a blue four-door sports utility vehicle — specifically a 2003 Mitsubishi — with a state of Texas license tag.
“If you’ve seen a vehicle matching this description we’re asking them to contact us or any law enforcement,” Crawford said.
As for the teen and two young children, various agencies in Texas have been contacted about the situation as the three were released to family members.
Crawford gives plenty of credit to the resident for staying cool and contacting authorities before the burglary suspects had the chance to get away.
“A lot of the credit goes to the homeowner. She remained calm and contacted us right away,” he said.
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