Thieves

Baxter County deputies used footprints in the snow to track down two suspects accused of stealing from businesses in Mountain Home. David Saunders was arrested Friday after deputies followed tracks to his apartment; officers found several pieces of stolen jewelry, knives and scrap metal inside the apartment. Saunders is being held on $50,000 bond. The other suspect's name has not been released because he is a juvenile.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. --  A lot of election signs are going in the ground this year, but some are not staying there. As Springfield resident Loretta Owens sits in her living room chair knitting stocking caps, she keeps a keen eye on her new political signs in her front yard because someone swiped her old ones. "I can see my Jay Nixon, I can see my Obama, and I can see my Claire, and I watch them every day," said Loretta peering through her window. She even knows the signs were taken at exactly 4:22 in the morning; the deed was caught on Loretta's surveillance camera.

AURORA, Mo. -- Cattle rustlers struck another farmer in Lawrence County on Tuesday night.  This time it was at Scott Welch's farm about four miles north of Aurora on Highway K.  The thieves took eight calves. This cattle theft was about five miles west of a similar theft last week near Marionville.   Sheriff Brad DeLay says the method used by the thieves were similar in both cases.  Thieves cut fences and gates through four fields to gain access to the cattle.  They took one gray heifer with a large cyst on the underside, two black banded bulls, two white heifers, and three black heifers.  Each weighed between 500 and 750 pounds.   All are a Angus/Charolais mix breed.

Phones near the northwest part of Springfield are out of service after crooks tried to steal phone cable near Fantastic Caverns. Officials with the cavern say it's been an ongoing issue for the past several years.  A similar theft happened in 2008, when thieves were successful in stealing the copper cable.  Crooks are able to then sell it for scrap. Communication crews are now looking into replacing the outdated stretch of cable with a fiber optic system.

DADE COUNTY, Mo -- It's an on-going problem in rural areas of the Ozarks.  A Dade County farmer says he lost half his herd of beef cattle. The sheriff's office is investigating the cattle theft case that took place on Highway 39 north of Greenfield. Keith Hankins says thanks to horse tracks, he can tell how the thieves corralled his cattle and sorted out the calves. He lost 21 calves, worth more than 800 dollars each. He says he feels violated that people came on his property and took his livestock.

BUFFALO, Mo. -- Burglars burrowed through a wall and cracked open a safe inside a convenience store.   The Buffalo Police Department was dispatched to the Eagle Stop store at 1212 S. Ash St. a little after 5 a.m. Tuesday.  When officers got there, they found a hole had been punched through one of the store's walls and cash and checks were taken from a safe near the cash register.     Police don't know exactly how much money was...

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. --  It's a summer time staple: thieves targeting cars, homes and businesses.  The number of break-ins from burglaries is up in and around Springfield. Summer is often prime time because people are out of town, and nowadays many people post that on Facebook and it makes them a target.  But even those who don't post such information can quickly find themselves ransacked. Angel Foster's family left for a family camping trip for only one night.  While they were away, everything they had at home was stolen: TVs, computers, an X-Box, clothes, jewelry.  Foster says much of it belonged to her young children.

MONETT -- Karen Kenyon loves taking her grand-kids to Monett's city park and this time of it's even more special. "The kids go through the park several times with the lights," said Kenyon. The lights are the Festival of Lights.      When the tradition started nine years ago, there were about 23 displays and now there are about 60.     But this year, turning on of the lights nearly had to be delayed for the first time ever.      Some are blaming a Grinch. Sometime in the overnight hours last week, thieves swiped about 2,000 feet of electrical cable.

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.

REEDS SPRING, Mo.-- A teenager's only form of transportation is stolen.  While 19 year old Ryan Kraus was out enjoying a concert, thieves took his motorized wheelchair. Ryan has always used a wheelchair, because he was born with spina bifida.  His motorized chair was waiting for him at his Reeds Spring home while he used his light-weight one at the Carrie Underwood concert.  He can't even tell you his favorite Carrie Underwood song.  "I don't have one.  I like them all," Ryan Kraus says.  He enjoyed every one of them at the concert Sunday night.  "It was awesome.  I loved it," Ryan says.

Springfield, Mo. -- The air conditioning units belonging to a small congregation on the city's northside were stripped for copper in March.  Two months later, Springfield Police said there are no leads, and they are no longer investigating the case.    Volunters at Central Baptist Church on N. National are hauling in loads of donated electronics, books, toys, and clothes to set up for the church rummage sale Friday and Saturday. "We're hoping we get some good people to come by and visit with us that are willing to donate," said Keith Wyrick, one of church members.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- Postal inspectors are tracking down what happened to dozens of passport applications filed by people here in Springfield, as well as in Alabama and other parts of the country. Those packets contain sensitive information about your life.  Now, one woman from Springfield is battling to protect her son from identity thieves. (Editor's Note: We aren't using Michelle's last name at her request. She's very concerned because her documents are missing.) Michelle dreams of a summer vacation on a Mexican beach.  She calls it "a kinda big deal.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- A nonprofit agency serving the Springfield community is the target of thieves twice in less than a week.  The Community Partnership of the Ozarks says someone broke into its headquarters over the weekend, and then its Neighborhood Resource Center on Tuesday night. "This was the door that was up to my office.  They just completely just kicked it in, and, as you can tell, they just went through it," said Anita Kuhns, an employee of the Community Partnership of the Ozarks.

UPDATE, April 1) SALEM, Mo. -- On Friday, the Dent County Sheriff's Department, with help from the Pulaski County Sheriff's Department and Missouri State Highway Patrol, arrested two suspects for the theft of cattle that occurred at the Salem Livestock Auction in Dent County on Wednesday.  The arrests occurred after the thieves' images were shown on television and internet news broadcasts on Thursday.  Manu Te'o, 25, of Waynesville and Eric O'Connell,...

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. --  Knocked over, torn apart, and ripped away. That was how Robert Burnett recently discovered several air conditioning units. "This is very, very upsetting. " Upsetting, Pastpr Burnett said, because thieves didn't think twice about targeting a house of prayer. It's the Central Baptist Church in north Springfield where Burnett is the pastor. I'm not surprised," said Burnett.  "I was just wishing and hoping because they were up so high that it wouldn't happen to us, but I guess there's no exceptions.

HALLTOWN, Mo. -- Sheriff's deputies are investigating a report from a cattle rancher in western Greene County that someone “baited” his cattle.  The report came from an area between Republic and Halltown, near Highway PP at Farm Road 156. The farmer discovered feed along a fence line next to the road.  Baiting with feed is a way to easily lure cattle into a trailer so they can be stolen.  The baiting apparently occurred on Sunday night. Sheriff Jim Arnott asks cattle ranchers to check their herds and fence lines often and promptly report suspicious persons or incidents by calling 911.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- When thieves started targeting a neighborhood, the neighborhood decided to fight back. Like any community in Springfield, the Phelps Grove area is not immune to crime. "The locks held, but they kicked the whole door in," said Ron Moskalski.  "What really burnt my butt was when they took my son's money he's been saving for nine years. " Thieves broke into the home of Moskalski and his wife, Suzanne, but they weren't the only targets. "The neighborhood had been picked as an easy target," said Spike Anderson.  "There were one, two, three within a week.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- The Greene County Sheriff's Department has received several reports in recent weeks of thieves taking air conditioner units from businesses and vacant homes that are for sale.  Copper and other recyclable metals seem to be the target of the thieves.  Sheriff Jim Arnott urges owners to secure such items and other metal appliances. Residents should call 911 if they see suspicious activity around closed businesses or vacant homes. Arnott asks for anyone with information regarding such thefts to call his office at (417)

AURORA, Mo. -- When you think about cattle rustling, you probably imagine old western movies, but the crime is all too real.  In one week, in the cover of night, thieves hit two farms in Lawrence County. Scott Welch's place was the most recent target on Tuesday night.  The culprits cut through several barbed wire fences, culled the herd, loaded up eight calves and hauled them away. "The job of a farmer has been to keep his cattle in.  We were more worried about keeping cattle in than we were keeping people out," said Welch.

AURORA, Mo. -- Cattle rustlers struck another farmer in Lawrence County on Tuesday night.  This time it was at Scott Welch's farm about four miles north of Aurora on Highway K.  The thieves took eight calves. This cattle theft was about five miles west of a similar theft last week near Marionville.   Sheriff Brad DeLay says the method used by the thieves were similar in both cases.  Thieves cut fences and gates through four fields to gain access to the cattle.  They took one gray heifer with a large cyst on the underside, two black banded bulls, two white heifers, and three black heifers.  Each weighed between 500 and 750 pounds.   All are a Angus/Charolais mix breed.