ST. GEORGE — Video surveillance with an audio feature likely disrupted a burglary in progress in Hildale late Wednesday night. And when police arrived, they found the suspect still on the premises with property they say was stacked and ready to be removed.
Tyler John Hammon, 25, of Colorado City, Arizona, was arrested and booked into jail facing third-degree felony burglary and one misdemeanor count of wrongful appropriation.
The charges stem from a call about a potential burglary in progress on North Box Elder Street in Hildale shortly before 10:30 p.m. Wednesday. According to documents filed by the Colorado City Police Department in support of the arrest, the owner of the electrical company called authorities when the shop’s security camera captured video of a suspect inside.
Hammon reportedly was putting large rolls of wire into a garbage barrel, and the owner, using the security system’s audio feature, said he told the suspect to leave the premises.
Responding officers found a silver Ford pickup truck parked on the east side of the building and approached the vehicle to check the plate number. They then saw Hammon walking from the south side of the building.
The suspect reportedly told officers he gained entry into the building by accessing a hole he used to open the door and said he was inside looking for fuel for his truck. When he found no fuel, he said he “decided to take the wire off the shelf and put it in the trash barrel,” the officer noted in the report.
Hammon went on to say there were three roles of wire in the barrel and he intended to sell them.
The owner met with police at the scene and checked the building, during which they found damage at the point of entry, which according to police, called into question the suspect’s account of how he entered the building.
Officers also found five rolls of wire, not three as the suspect had said, and they found other items stacked near the suspect’s alleged point of exit, which officers noted were likely items left abandoned after the owner’s voice came over the security system.
This report is based on statements from court records, police or other responders and may not contain the full scope of findings. Persons arrested or charged are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law or as otherwise decided by a trier-of-fact.
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