INDIANA COMPUTERS STOLEN FROM BUSINESSTribune StarTeens busted for alleged links to six burglaries

Crimes include theft of $70K in jewelry from downtown store

By Jamie Fetty/Tribune-Star

January 12, 2005

Terre Haute police arrested five teenagers in connection with six different burglaries, including the recent theft of more than $70,000 in jewelry from Rogers Jewelers at Sixth Street and Wabash Avenue.

Police received a tip that a young woman was selling stolen jewelry and they arranged to have officers buy some from her, said Bill Bergherm, chief of investigations for the Terre Haute police. Officers bought the jewelry and then got a search warrant for a house in the 1600 block of Seventh Avenue about 8 p.m. Monday.

The search turned up stolen merchandise from the December burglary of Rogers, as well as that day's break-ins of a Radio Shack and a Dollar General, a January burglary of a variety store, and November 2004 burglaries of IKON Office Solutions on Fruitridge Avenue and a Dollar General on Johnson Street.

Police arrested Kyle Layman, 18, who lived in the house; Amanda Salmon, 19, of Rosedale; Timothy Compton, 19, of Terre Haute and two 17-year-olds. Bergherm said police also plan to arrest an additional 18-year-old and 17-year-old in connection with the burglaries.

Laymon is preliminarily charged with possession of a controlled substance and six counts of burglary and is being held under $75,000 bail. Salmon is preliminarily charged with one count each of receiving stolen property and burglary and is being held under $25,000 bail. Compton is preliminarily charged with one count of burglary and his bail will be set today at his court appearance.

While police have not totaled the value of everything seized, they believe several thousand dollars in merchandise was stolen from Radio Shack and the thefts from IKON include several laptop computers.

None of the teens denied their involvement in the burglaries and have been cooperative in leading police to stolen merchandise, Bergherm said. The group may have been trading the stolen items for drugs, and one baggie of methamphetamine was recovered from the house, he said. Some of the items taken from the Dollar General stores were meth precursors and reagents.

Bergherm said police also found a portfolio with plans for past and future burglaries that listed phone numbers for alarm companies and instructions on avoiding alarm triggers.

"This may not be organized crime, but they were organized," he said.

The three arrested adults declined comment through a jail officer.