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More than one way to catch a crook Biologist uses hunting skills to nab alleged teenage thief By Mark Freeman CENTRAL POINT � The first time a thief went joy-riding in biologist Merv Wolfer�s Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife pickup last month, Wolfer chalked it up to bad luck. When it happened again six days later, it became downright annoying. "After that," Wolfer says, "it became kind of personal." Uncharmed by the prospect of seeing his pickup stolen and ditched a third time, Wolfer set out to catch the thief like he would a blacktail deer, or possibly trail the culprit like he would a Roosevelt elk. Wolfer parlayed the tricks and tools of the wildlife biology trade last week to help nab an alleged teenage thief and break up a small but resourceful burglary ring that won�t be preying upon the ODFW�s Central Point office � nor Wolfer�s pickup � any time soon. Wolfer planted a big-game tracking transmitter in his pickup truck and parked it in view of a video camera armed with an infrared motion-detector used to count deer in the woods. The setup Saturday helped identify the serial thief, who was arrested. It also led Jackson County sheriff�s deputies to recover more than $20,000 worth of items stolen not only from ODFW, but also from the Central Point police and a nearby rural church. "It�s a good example of how victims who get involved in the process can assist us in obtaining evidence and bring the case together," says sheriff�s Deputy Colin Fagan, who investigated the case. "But this was a technique that�s pretty unique," Fagan says. "Not everyone has infrared sensors." A 16-year-old Central Point boy faces felony burglary, theft and other charges in juvenile court stemming from the burglaries. Two other teens who are the boy�s alleged accomplices have been identified and likely also will face charges, Fagan says. And it proves a new adage � burglars ought not mess with a big-game biologist. "At least not one who takes pictures," Wolfer says. The incidents began March 21, when a thief or thieves broke into ODFW and stole candy, cash, an ATV, a gun and assorted other items � including a spare key to Wolfer�s ODFW pickup truck. The thief took the pickup for a ride, then abandoned it at the Expo Ponds area east of Central Point. The 1994 Ford pickup was returned to Wolfer, but the thief apparently kept the spare key. When the truck was stolen again March 27 along with several thousand dollars� worth of other ODFW gear, the thief got the truck stuck in mud on the adjacent Denman Wildlife Area and abandoned it there. Wolfer had had enough. He took a small radio transmitter used to track elk and placed it inside a flashlight that he then planted on the pickup seat. He parked the pickup at the ODFW office in plain view of a hidden video camera hooked up to an infrared sensor � the same equipment used to videotape migrating blacktail deer. On March 31, the truck was stolen again � but the thief tripped the infrared sensor in the process, leading to the culprit�s image getting captured on film. The pickup was later abandoned at a nearby church �but the thief did not make off with the flashlight as hoped. "That would have worked, I think, if he only would have taken the flashlight," Fagan says. Last Friday, technicians at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service�s National Forensics Laboratory in Ashland digitally enhanced the videotape to produce enlarged photographs of the thief, Fagan says. Pictures were passed around the sheriff�s department later that day until Deputy Phil Cicero identified the teen, who he had arrested several months earlier for the theft of an ATV, Fagan says. Deputies went to the teen�s house Saturday and played the videotape for the suspect�s father, who identified his son � who was working on a juvenile detention work crew at the time, Fagan says. The father then consented to a search, which turned up many of the stolen items. "The third time was the charm," Wolfer says. "For us, not them." Police also recovered the stolen ATV, several radios and cameras taken from the ODFW as well as items stolen in two other burglaries, Fagan says. One of those included $2,600 worth of sound equipment stolen in a Thanksgiving week burglary at the Heaven Bound Fellowship church, Fagan says. The items belonged to the church�s congregational band. Also found were a bicycle, a fingerprint kit and several other items that were reportedly stolen from a Central Point Police Department evidence storage facility in January, Fagan says. Some of the items still had their evidence tags on them, he says. Some of the items were sold for cash or traded for drugs, Fagan says. Staff writer Mark Freeman covers the outdoors for the Mail Tribune. Call him at 776-4470, or e-mail him at [email protected] ) Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.