Probe of antiques burglaries nets 6 arrests
Two of the people arrested were well known locally in the antiques and art community, including one man that some say was the main high-end antiques dealer in Salt Lake City.
Anthony Christensen, 62, the owner of Anthony's Antiques and Fine Art, 401 E. 200 South, was arrested and charged in 3rd District Court with theft by receiving stolen property, a second degree felony. John Pilcher, 66, another well known buyer and seller, was charged with the same crime as a co-defendant.
For about a year, a group of people have been breaking into homes throughout Salt Lake and Summit counties and stealing valuable antique art, according to police. Investigators believed the group wasn't just guessing what was valuable and what wasn't.
"We have recovered thousand of dollars worth of property," said Salt Lake police detective Jeff Bedard. "This wasn't just nickel and dime kind of stuff."
How the burglars knew which homes to burglarize was still being investigated Tuesday. But Bedard noted some of the people arrested "used to be employed in the antiques field, so they new what had value and what didn't."
Bedard said Tuesday additional arrests were possible.
Dennis Hobot, 41; Shane Kennedy, 42; Gerald Kory Lloyd, 61; and Sonny Gines, 24, were each charged with burglary. Warrants were also issued for Carrie Lynn Galloway, 30, and Ricky Hepner, 28, who were not in custody as of Tuesday. Investigators believe the group was responsible for most of the home burglaries, sometimes hitting the same home twice and sometimes exchanging their stolen goods with each other as part of a network-like scenario.
In February, a man had two paintings stolen from his house, according to documents filed in 3rd District Court. On March 7, the homeowner went to several antique stores looking for his paintings and to warn the stores to be on the lookout. Anthony's Antiques said it did not know about the stolen paintings.
A half-hour after the man got home, however, he received a call from Anthony's that one of the paintings was there, court documents state.
Police learned that Pilcher bought the painting from Hobot for $1,000 in a "trunk-to-trunk" transaction in the parking lot of Sears. Pilcher then sold the painting to Christensen for $5,000. Pilcher also bought the second painting from Lloyd, and detectives found that one still in his home, according to court documents.
You can be the first to comment on this story.