ShareMayor helps foil burglars, learns he was robbed
The Associated PressHutchinson Mayor Ron Sellers found out what it's like to be a crime fighter and crime victim on the same night.
Sellers phoned police to report suspicious people walking around his neighborhood before dawn on Tuesday. The officers who arrived found stolen property in a car the burglary suspects left behind when they fled the neighborhood, The Hutchinson News reported (http://bit.ly/xedML9 ).
When police started going through the stolen goods, they found computers belonging to Sellers and his wife and the mayor realized that his home had been burglarized while they slept.
Police Capt. Troy Hoover said that Sellers' prompt action will help police clear several residential and motor vehicle burglaries that occurred overnight, and possibly some earlier cases.
"It was a good snag," Hoover said. Detective Curtis Black said one suspect has been arrested and additional arrests are expected.
Sellers said he had trouble getting back to sleep after his wife let one of their dogs out about 2 a.m. Tuesday so he stayed up to watch television. Then their other dog started barking.
Sellers said he went to see what was agitating the dog and saw two people outside. They seemed suspicious to him so he called police. The two people disappeared around a corner, and a moment later he saw a black car drive past.
Sellers called the police again to say the suspicious characters might be in a black car. Then he saw the black car parked out front. He stepped out on his porch and saw the two figures on his neighbor's porch. He yelled at them and they ran away.
Hoover said officers looking through the windows of the car saw a number of items they believed had been stolen. Sellers then checked and noticed that his computer and his wife's computer were missing.
"My life is on that computer, and I don't back anything up," he said.
Sellers, who admitted it was unnerving to know someone was in his house while they slept, said he suspected the thieves had come in through an unlocked back door, which he said would be locked in the future.