Midvale police solve computer, car theft ring

Four gang members who detectives say were involved with stealing computers out of school and cars off a dealer's lot were arrested Wednesday by Midvale police.

Police received a call of a car burglary in progress near 8200 South and 450 West, said Midvale police Sgt. John Salazar. Officers immediately surrounded the area and took three people into custody. One was arrested on warrants, another for investigation of drug possession, the third cited and released, he said.

Detectives, however, later received additional information about the man they released and took him into custody a second time.

That man, along with his friends, were believed to have broken into a portable classroom at Midvale Elementary School through a sliding window sometime over the weekend and taken four computers, Salazar said.

Monday, four cars from a local auto dealer's lot were stolen, and another computer from inside the office, he said. The group arrested also was connected to that incident, Salazar said.

The men sold the computers to other people, he said. As of Thursday, two of them had been recovered. Investigators were able to recover all four stolen vehicles, left abandoned at various points around the city.

A fourth person was arrested during the course of the investigation, Salazar said. The men were booked into the Salt Lake County Jail for investigation of four counts of auto theft, all first-degree felonies; burglary of a business, burglary of a school and theft, all second-degree felonies.

When the cases are screened by the Salt Lake District Attorney's Office, Salazar said, they will seek gang enhancement on the charges.

Midvale police Thursday were investigating whether the group could be connected to any other criminal activity.

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