Four arrested in connection with school burglaries

Four people are in custody on suspicion of involvement with a string of burglaries at valley schools and in other areas, including one last week at Providence Elementary School, and one sheriff’s official is citing old fashioned good police work as the reason.Tuesday morning, a Cache County Sheriff’s Deputy was on the side of the road making a routine traffic stop in Hyde Park when he noticed a silver van with a white panel on the side drive southbound. It was a vehicle matching the description of a van that was reported to law enforcement on Sunday as being involved in an attempted burglary at River Heights Elementary School.The deputy quickly left the traffic stop he was on to pursue the silver van, and the people he found inside led to an unraveling of a case that’s so far netted four arrests, and could bring more as the investigation continues.”Over the course of a few hours we gained enough information (from the people in the van) that we felt we could make some arrests,” Cache County Sheriff’s Lt. Matt Bilodeau said. “The more we talked to people, the more we did … we were able to solve more crimes and at the same time narrow in on more people who were involved.”Bilodeau said the arrests have likely cleared up the Sunday incident at River Heights Elementary, the burglary and theft at Providence Elementary last week, multiple vehicle burglaries on the USU campus, a home burglary in Logan and an aggravated assault in Logan.In custody so far are David Anderson, a 53-year-old Logan man, Troy Brown, 22 of Logan, Demi Jensen, 18 of Smithfield, and a 17-year-old Logan male.Brown and Anderson both face felony burglary charges while charges are still pending against the other two individuals pending a review by the Cache County Attorney. Bilodeau said, however, that the charges against Anderson will be elevated because he is a “habitual criminal.””He’s the one we wanted to get off the streets,” Bilodeau said. “He is one of those habitual criminals, so any felony he gets now is a first-degree felony … he is going away for a long time.”Bilodeau said the investigation is continuing into a property with evidence in Box Elder County. The critical tip regarding a silver van with a white panel was made by an observant resident on Sunday when they reportedly witnessed some suspicious activity at River Heights Elementary. That tip with a few small nuggets of information coupled with an observant deputy to help solve the crime, Bilodeau said.”This is one of those fun cases, a lot of times you get cases where you get very little evidence, very little to go on and you put a lot of time investigating them with very little results,” Bilodeau said. “It comes down to good old fashioned police work and one deputy paying attention. He did a great job and because of that one element there, everything else unfolded.”

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