Mail Tribune News - Couple interrupt residential burglar

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Couple interrupt residential burglar Man suspected in several crimes By JIM DAVIS A Phoenix man was arrested Sunday after he allegedly was interrupted in a burglary by a husband and wife coming home from church. Jeffrey George Zech of Phoenix was being held in the Jackson County Jail on three counts of first-degree burglary, a count of second-degree theft and several charges of failure to appear in court. Bail was set at $30,000. Jackson County sheriff's Lt. Dewey Patten said that Zech is believed to have committed at least five burglaries in Jackson County. He said that Zech was discovered when a 42-year-old man and his wife were returning to their home on Cherry Lane in south Medford on Sunday and found Zech in their driveway. Zech told them that he was looking for someone who lived at the house. While the husband was talking to Zech, the wife walked into the house and found that somebody had broken into the home through an automatic garage door. "She came out and told her husband that they'd been burglared," Patten said. Zech jumped into a blue 1988 Geo and fled from their house, but the victims called police immediately. Phoenix police pulled Zech over shortly after their phone call, Patten said. Deputies searched his home at 310 Independence Circle on Sunday and found a variety of items from beer signs to compact discs to musical instruments that are believed to have been stolen. Patten said they took the stolen property to a property room and will try to determine the owners of the stolen goods. Mail Tribune Copyright �  The Mail Tribune 1998, Medford, Oregon USA