Thief

SPRINGFIELD, Mo.--  Homes are being broken into all over Springfield. Police are working several right now, but they say they don't think it's an organized "ring" of thieves.  There have been 145 of them reported in the last 30 days, all over the city. One lady got hit Sunday afternoon in broad daylight. "I don't know why he was so brazen that he was willing to stand there-- peering in my window for such a long time," said Connie Clemenson. Someone was staring into her back window as Clemenson was just sitting in her recliner, watching T.V. on Sunday.

OSAGE BEACH, Mo. -- City police say they’ve learned criminals can swipe information on a credit card account without ever touching or even seeing the card.  The police chief call it electronic pickpocketing. By getting within two or three feet of a purse or wallet, thieves can use a credit card reading device to steal personal bank information.  It’s a device that any thief can buy on the Internet. Credit card companies tout the new payWave or pay pass systems as the latest and greatest way to get in and out quickly.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. --  Security video from a hobby shop in the Brentwood Center shows a thief making off with thousands of dollars in merchandise.  The store owner said it happened ON Monday night, and the merchandise stolen added up to a full month's worth of profits for his business. "They knew what they were looking for, had obviously been in here before, figured out how they were going to take it," said Tim Weyers, the owner of Hobbytown USA. Weyers said security images captured Monday night show the man picking up two $1,200 model cars and placing them by the back door, in anticipation of a quick getaway.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – An increasing number of thieves are striking cellular telephone stores and then selling their stashes. That's because the phones are big on the black market. Since January, seven people have been charged for burglaries at cell phone stores in Springfield. One storeowner set up his own undercover operation. Travis Selsor, owner of a Verizon store, was fed up after three break-ins in five months. Selsor set up his own sting online, looking for stolen phones from his store on Craigslist and he found some.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo.--   Homeowners beware.  Thieves have been targeting homes during broad daylight, trying to get in while you are gone. An elderly lady was hit a couple weeks ago at her home near the Battlefield Mall. Now thousands of dollars worth of jewelry, and her sense of security are missing. "We grew up in an era where we felt safe in our own home... where we were not violated in our home. "  Now, this elderly lady is too frightened to show her face on camera, or even give us her real name.  "I came home at 2:30p.m., I had been gone for about 4 hours over the noon hour," the homeowner said.

  REPUBLIC, Mo. -- City police are reviewing video from a police cruiser and from a plumbing business as part of the effort to track down a man who rammed a vehicle into a patrol car early Wednesday morning.  It happened near Highway MM at James River Freeway (Missouri 360). Officers say the driver stole a trailer from a nearby plumbing business and took off.  An officer spotted the vehicle and pulled it over.  That's when the driver backed the trailer into the patrol car and sped off again.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- The Springfield Police Department said Tuesday afternoon that it's helping the Greene County Sheriff's Department investigate the theft of police equipment, including an AR-15 rifle and a Remington 870 shotgun, possible similar to those in the photographs.  Someone stole the equipment from a Springfield police officer's private vehicle.  The officer thinks the theft was last Saturday or Sunday near the southwest part of the...

HOLLISTER, Mo. -- White River Valley Electric Cooperative restored power to about 200 customers Wednesday morning after an attempted copper theft. WRVEC says the thieves dug a series of holes to steal copper off a telephone cable.  Instead, they hit a power line.  Jeff Pardeck, a spokesman for White River Valley Electric, says the thief likely was injured because his tools were abandoned at the site.  The power company says a ground wire may have saved his life.  

ROGERSVILLE, Mo. --  Tonia Kotulski has lived in her neighborhood in southeast Greene County for 15 years.  She never had a problem there until this week. "I thought what in the world, was that just a crime?" said Kotulski. Shortly after putting a bill in the mailbox at her curb, Kutulski saw a woman drive up to her mailbox, open it and brazenly swipe the contents. In spite of her shock, Kutulski immediately went to her bank, where she saw deputies with another woman whose mailbox had also been hit. In all, five mailboxes in the area were targeted on Monday.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo.-- Identity theft has become a huge problem in the digital age, with 20-percent of Americans saying they've been victimized. It's no laughing matter, unless the person who stole your life was in the movie "Bridesmaids. " Local movie review guy Aaron Dicer gives us his opinion on the movie.  Watch the video for his take! Plus, see more of his movie reviews at his Web-site .