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| Pair Nabbed in Two Break-ins posted on 02/01/2010
Two Mountain residents were arrested and lodged in the Clackamas County Jail for break-ins at two local businesses.
In the early morning hours of Jan. 5, the Whistle Stop in Welches and Wall Street Pizza in Sandy were burglarized.
Armed with two search warrants, the Sandy Police – working with county sheriff’s deputies and the county Inter-Agency Task Force - apprehended Jonathan Holden Brady, 27, and Carson Ray Barden, 30, on Jan. 27 at a Government Camp bar.
Brady and Barden are being held on $52,500 bail, each facing charges of Burglary II, Criminal Mischief I, Theft I, and Theft II, according to the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office. At press time the CCSO reported that Brady had posted bail.
Jeff Dunham, three-year owner of The Whistle Stop – a Mountain establishment since 1927 – was shocked when his camera security tapes revealed the alleged perpetrators.
“When I saw the video, saw who it was, I couldn’t believe it,” Dunham said. “They were regulars. They always seemed to be regular guys.”
Twelve video surveillance cameras captured the break-in.
The connection to Wall Street Pizza was made by Dunham when a Verizon technician notified him that the pizza parlor’s phone line had been cut as well as The Whistle Stop on the same night. He told Dunham he didn’t believe in coincidence.
Dunham immediately contacted Wall Street Pizza owner Jim Beckers and they compared video surveillance tapes – which were turned over to the Sandy Police Department.
Detective K.T. Taylor, of SPD, took up the case, examined the tapes, and eventually secured the search warrants.
“Both establishments had surveillance tapes,” Taylor told The Mountain Times. “We reviewed them and the suspects appeared to be similar, as well as the MO.”
Julianne Carson, a Whistle Stop employee of eight months, was the first on the scene at 6 a.m., Jan. 5.
“When I saw the back door open I thought it was just the beer truck driver,” Carson said. “But I figured out pretty quickly that wasn’t the case. I hoped no one was still inside. But I’m a criminal justice student, so I knew not to go in.”
Carson then contacted the manager, William Dunham Sr. – Jeff Dunham’s father – who lives on the Mountain. He arrived a few minutes later and notified authorities.
Admitting he was no expert on such things – he had never been robbed before – Dunham was not hesitant to point out how “professional” the job appeared to be.
“They knew right where to go, and what not to touch,” he said. “For example, they left the lottery machines alone. That would have triggered an immediate alarm to the police.”
Dunham estimates the loss at “about $10,000” which includes top-shelf liquor, structural damage, and “about $4,000 in receipts.”
It appears the burglars cut the phone line before breaking through the door of the supply room on the east side of the building. They apparently were thwarted there by a triple-locked door which kept them from entering the bar and restaurant area.
Not to be denied, evidence suggests they broke out a back window and entered the bar.
“They broke into the office, stole all the top-shelf liquor, a laptop computer and went for the machines,” Dunham said.
Machines burglarized included the cash register (which was empty), the juke box, cigarette machine, two pinball machines, the Trivia game and the ATM machine.
The ATM netted the biggest haul as the cash register receipts and the next day’s bank were kept in the upper portion of the machine, according to Dunham.
“They got about $4,000 in cash from the ATM, another $400 or so from the juke box, and smaller amounts from the rest of the machines,” he said.
Dunham reflected on the fact that there was only a three-hour window between the night bartender’s closing and Carson’s arrival.
“It was such a narrow time frame,” he said. “They knew the routine, I figure. They got in and out in a hurry, especially when you figure that everything they took had to be handed through the broken back window and over the patio fence.”
Five video cameras documented the break-in at the Proctor Blvd. pizza parlor.
Beckers, owner of Wall Street Pizza for 11 years, said this was the first forced entry he had suffered at the establishment.
“I felt violated,” Beckers said. “This is no fun. But I guess it’s the risk of doing business.”
He said the burglars got about $200 from the backup cash register.
“They missed out on another $200,” he said. “They smashed the primary cash register but couldn’t get into it.”
Damage included a broken window and the cash register. There was beer and wine on the premises but “it doesn’t appear they took any,” he said.
The break-in was discovered at 10:30 a.m. Jan. 5 when the manager, James Young, came to open the pizza parlor.
The investigation is ongoing, and Taylor asks anyone with information about either break-in to notify him at the Sandy Police Department, 503-668-5566.
by Larry Berteau/MT
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