Burglary

LEBANON, Mo. -- The Lebanon Police Department is investigating a break-in and burglary at a local church. Early Sunday morning, the pastor of Real Life Church, located at 2021 S. Jefferson Ave. called for help after discovering a door had been pried open. Church members say thieves took a bag of money from a concesssion stand the congregation operates.  Nothing else was reported missing.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - Springfield Police are investigating a burglary that suddenly turned into an arson investigation. Authorities first responded to a report of a break-in at the Executive Conference Center.  Officers called firefighters to assist after they found smoke coming from one of the rooms.  Investigators described that as a small fire.  Police also found a bullet hole in the door.  The suspect remains on the loose.  

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- A city fire marshal and police detectives will try to find whoever broke into a business early Friday and started a fire.  The fire damaged a small room at the Executive Conference Center, 910 W. Battlefield Road, about 7:30 a.m. Firefighters found a window that was broken before the fire.  Firefighters say it appears the arsonist burned some papers at the center, which hosts meetings and events for large groups of people....

HARRISON, Ark. -- A Harrison man has pleaded innocent to a botched burglary in Taney County.  Danny Waggoner was shot in the chest after the June home invasion in Powersite.  He evaded authorities after being treated at a Springfield hospital.  After three months on the run, Waggoner was captured in South Dakota

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - Police say they're hopeful security video will help them track down a man who held up a Springfield convenience store. The armed robbery happened around 11:30 Sunday night at the Signal station near Campbell and Broadmoor. Officers say a man in his early 20's walked into the store, pulled a mask over his face, then demanded money from the cashier at knifepoint. Once the clerk handed over the cash, the man took off on foot. No one was hurt. In a separate incident, police are searching for a man who stole items from a home in east Springfield.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- Police arrested a man whom they say is responsible for a burglary in a home in southeast Springfield on Tuesday.  A vehicle description from witnesses in the 2400 block of East Barataria Street led police to Dallas Stottle, 26.  He was in the Greene County jail on Friday morning, facing several charges including burglary. The victims of the crime discovered a broken bedroom window when they got home from work on Tuesday, and discovered many personal items missing.  "Our computer and iPad, broke a lot of our family pictures, stole jewelery and clothing, and then took off with some duffel bags full," said Jeannie Glover.

FORSYTH, Mo. -- Less than a year after Danny Waggoner was shot during a burglary at a home near Powersite, he received the maximum prison sentence.  Circuit Judge Mark Orr gave Waggoner three concurrent sentences, with the longest being 20 years, for burglary, tampering with a motor vehicle and armed criminal action.     Peggy Melton, the woman who shot Waggoner at her home last June, wanted justice, but she also hopes Waggoner will have the chance to come out of prison a better person.  Waggoner must remain in prison for at least 85 percent of the 20-year sentence before being eligible for parole.

FORSYTH, Mo. -- Four people are charged with slashing horses on a farm near Hollister.  Amber Askins, Antwan Brown, Chadd Smith and Chris Miles are charged with burglary. Investigators believe the four people broke into a horse stable and attacked the horses there.  Prosecutors say they could face additional charges.

MOUNTAIN HOME, Mo. -- The Baxter County sheriff says Valeory Hodges, 43, and her son, Gary Barker, 19, broke into a home after the homeowner had an argument with the son.  The sheriff says he found stolen property belonging to the victim in Hodge's home and in a storage unit.  Both are charged with burglary and theft.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- In the last six weeks, Greene County sheriff's deputies arrested 24 burglary suspects caught in the act.  The arrests were the work of a temporary task force put together in mid-January by Sheriff Jim Arnott in response to a rash of daytime home burglaries in areas of Greene County outside Springfield. The task force was comprised of detectives, patrol officers, and employees from the civil and corrections division.  The sheriff's department used warnings given through the media as well as electronic signs to alert neighborhoods to suspicious behavior.  Greene County says it received many calls, including several of those reporting burglaries in progress.

BERRYVILLE, Ark. -- A three-week investigation may have solved up to 10 burglary and theft cases on both sides of the Arkansas-Missouri border.  Two people, Darrell Allen and Tracy Matthews, are charged in Carroll County with one of the burglaries and could be charged with more. On April 7, Carroll County Sgt. Daniel Klatt responded to a residential house fire at 665 CR 2415.  The house belongs to Terry and Vivian Thornton.  The investigation determined several items were stolen from the house before the fire.

WAYNESVILLE, Mo. -- A county-wide manhunt continues in Pulaski County on Friday for a fugitive.  The search began early Thursday evening and continued during the night.  Chad Lange, 38, is wanted for numerous felony charges, including auto theft and burglary. Law enforcement officials initially began searching for Lange after he was suspected of numerous car thefts and burglaries in the Dixon area over the past week.  The Dixon Police Department, the Pulaski County Sheriff's Department and other law enforcement agencies have been actively seeking Lange since warrants were issued for his arrest.

NEVADA, Mo. -- The Vernon County Sheriff's Department wants the public's help with locating a man who eluded sheriff's deputies.  Michael Chew is suspected of breaking into a house off Highway K just outside of Nevada on Friday afternoon.  Law enforcement officers conducted a three-hour manhunt for Chew on Friday night in the woods just off Highway E. Someone kicked open the door and assaulted a 13-year-old boy before stealing items from the...

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - They drove in, hopped out, and pulled off their crime in a just  minutes.  That's what Randy Hyde sees as he watches surveillance video of four  thieves loading up dozens of heavy wooden pallets stored at Hiland Dairy.  Hyde believes this footage may hold the clues police need to eventually catch the culprits. Hiland is just one businesses now using state-of-the-art cameras capturing nearly crystal-clear images of what's going on. "The quality is so much better," said Hyde, director of human resources at Hiland.  "We had an old system that had been in place for quite a  few years and you just couldn't hardly make out anything in the cameras.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- A search warrant application and a list of what was found during the search shed more light on the circumstances surrounding a shootout last Friday morning.  A Springfield police detective was grazed by a shot and a burglary suspect was killed outside a home at 2506 W. Grand St. According to the documents filed in Greene County Circuit Court, Springfield police were investigating two commercial burglaries on West Chestnut Expressway...

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- Springfield police shot and killed a man about 8 a.m. at a home at 2506 W. Grand St., after going there to serve a search warrant.  The police chief said Friday afternoon that several officers were on routine administrative leave while the fatal shooting is investigated. Springfield Police Chief Paul Williams says Det. Travis Wilson was hit in the right back/hip by a bullet during an exchange of gunfire with the man, who stepped outside the home.  Other officers shot and killed the man.  Investigators don't know which of several officers shot the man. Wilson was treated for his wound at a hospital and released.  He's recovering at home.  The detective was not wearing a protective bulletproof vest.  He was wearing a suit, not a police uniform.  This is the first time in 16 years that a Springfield police officer was shot.

SPRINGFIELD -- Springfield police officers have arrested a suspect in a burglary that happened at Pipkin Middle School early Sunday morning. School officers were alerted to a problem when the alarms went off.  When they went to check on the school, they saw a man inside.      When Springfield police officers arrived, the man fled.       After a foot chase, the suspect was caught and arrested. The suspect, whose name has not been released, is charged with second degree burglary.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- A man in a Missouri prison is charged with killing a couple from Greene County in April 2011.  Jose Huckleberry is charged with two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of armed criminal action, and one count of burglary for the deaths of Helen and Don Willinghams in their home just west of Springfield. Sheriff Jim Arnott says Huckleberry told investigators that he intended to burglarize the Willinghams' home but did not intend to kill them. Huckleberry, 25, is in prison for violating his probation on a burglary charge.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- A man in a Missouri prison is charged with killing a couple from Greene County on April 25, 2011.  Jose Huckleberry is charged with two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of armed criminal action, and one count of burglary for the deaths of Helen and Don Willinghams in their home just west of Springfield. Sheriff Jim Arnott says Huckleberry told investigators that he intended to burglarize the Willinghams' home but did not intend to kill them.  He made that statement to investigators during interviews last April 30 and May 1.  He wasn't charged until now, Arnott says, because investigators had to tie up other parts of the case, which he wouldn't specify.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- Crime Stoppers and the Springfield Police Department ask for assistance in identifying the person in these photographs.  Police are investigating a series of commercial burglaries in northwest Springfield that they believe were committed by the same people.   The police department says the man pictured is a "person of interest. "  Here are the locations of the burglaries released by the police department on Wednesday afternoon.  Dates were found on the police department's Crime Reports web site.