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Police investigate liquor store burglary, nab vehicle burglar
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By Charlie Warner
Argus News Editor
Approximately $2,080 in cash and credit card receipts were taken from the safe at the Caledonia Liquor Store sometime between closing time Friday night Oct. 30 and 9 a.m. Oct. 31.
According to the Caledonia Police Department, liquor store clerk Dusty Gavin said he closed up Friday night and made sure the money bag was in the safe, the safe was locked and all the doors in the building were locked.
A customer stopped at the liquor store Saturday morning, just before 9 a.m. and noticed the front door was open. The customer went inside and found no one in the building. A few minutes later the Saturday clerk, Cindy Meyer arrived, found the customer inside and was told the front door had been unlocked.
A check of the building revealed the open safe and the money bag missing.
The police department was called and is in the process of interviewing all of the employees as part of the investigation.
Councilman Tom Murphy, who is on the liquor store committee, wanted persons who may have used their credit cards at the liquor store on Oct. 30 to know, they need not worry about identity theft. Only the last four digits of a person’s credit card are on the receipts.
Auto burglar caught
Eric Siddons, 29, of La Crosse, was caught around 1 a.m. Oct. 31 following a lengthy chase, hiding in a child’s playhouse in the 1,000 block of Third Ave Southeast.
The Caledonia Police Department received a tip that someone was burglarizing vehicles. The suspect would move around town, check for unlocked vehicles, climb into them and ransack them for valuable items.
Chief Kurt Zehnder spotted the suspect in the southeast part of town and asked him what he was doing. The suspect replied he was heading to a friend’s house. Zehnder asked the suspect the name of his friend. When the suspect didn’t reply, Zehnder asked the suspect to walk over to his squad car. The suspect bolted, Zehnder followed on foot, but the suspect was able to get away into the night.
Zehnder called for back up. The Houston County Sheriff’s Office, the City of Houston Police Department, as well as several officers from the local department, and the county’s K-9 officer Virgil all converged on the area.
After a short search Siddons was found by Virgil hiding in a child’s playhouse. After a short interrogation, Siddons admitted to burglarizing “between 12 and 20 cars,” according to the police report.
Similar vehicle burglaries had been reported in La Crescent and Houston. When asked about those incidents, Siddons said he didn’t know anything about those cases.
According to Officer Allan Johnson, reports are still coming in from persons who have noticed things missing from their vehicles or that someone had been in their vehicles during the last weekend in October.
“If anyone feels they may have been a victim of this crime spree, they should contact us,” Johnson said.
You can contact Charlie Warner at
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