Two men apprehended, confess to recent burglaries
- Published: January 8, 2009
Yellow Springs police apprehended two Springfield men who confessed their involvement in the rash of burglaries that have been committed in the village over the past three to four months, Police Chief John Grote said on Tuesday morning. Police arrested Ricky Ferguson, 43, and Kenny Trimble, 38, last Wednesday, Dec. 31, on probable cause warrants and presented a case against them to a Greene County Grand Jury this week. The charges include multiple felonies related to the burglaries in Yellow Springs and Clark and Greene Counties over the same period.
The two men are believed to have committed eight burglaries in Yellow Springs, including four that were perpetrated in December in the Allen, Livermore and President Streets area. Some of the incidents involved breaking and entering, and some involved homes that were not locked. Locking one’s home is a measure that does not stop all criminals but can be a deterrent, Grote said. Police believe the men cased some of the homes and timed the burglary while the occupants were away.
According to Grote, police were able to link the crimes based on the types of stolen items, including mostly jewelry and petty cash, items that are quick and easy to carry out of a home. That group of thefts were then linked to checks that were stolen from a local address in September and which, when traced, had signatures that matched those on earlier stolen checks as well as on recovered pawn shop tickets, Grote said. Local police had help from the Springfield police, who held active warrants for other crimes committed by Ferguson and Trimble, Grote said.
After police picked the two men up and interviewed them about the crimes, they confessed to having committed all eight incidents in the village, Grote said.
Some of the property stolen in Yellow Springs was sold at pawn shops in the Springfield area, and some of the jewelry was traded for drugs through a dealer in Springfield, Grote said. Though some of the property has been recovered, police are now concentrating on tracking down the other items.
YSPD spent close to 200 hours investigating the case, which involved the entire department in a collaborative effort. Officers Andrew Gault and Tom Jones presented the case in Greene County.
“All of our officers did a good and thorough job to get the arrests,” Grote said. “Now we’re focusing on trying to get some of the property back, which is a difficult process.”
Both of the accused men have lengthy criminal histories involving theft and drug use, Grote said. According to the Greene County court records, since 2003 Ferguson has been convicted of forgery, possession of marijuana and/or cocaine, receiving stolen property and theft.
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