Medina County sheriff’s deputies busted a big theft ring in the county this week. They obtained search warrants for two storage units and two homes in San Antonio, which yielded the arrest of one of the suspects with more arrests to come soon. For over a month, they’ve been watching and waiting to make their move as a massive number of appliances have been stolen from high-end homes in the Potranco Ranch Subdivision area over the past few weeks.
“We put in a lot of hours, and we finally got the break we needed. We collected evidence off of the trim board in the house where one of the microwaves was stolen,” said Sheriff Randy Brown. “Later we got a search warrant for a storage unit in San Antonio, where we located that microwave.”
Thieves targeted the high-end subdivision in the Castroville area that’s brought a huge influx of people to the county in the past few years.
When we spoke last Friday Sheriff Brown reported, “So far we’ve recovered something like 18 microwaves and 6 refrigerators, and these aren’t your regular microwaves either. These microwaves are worth something like $1,100 a piece.”
The sheriff and deputies were just about to execute another search warrant in San Antonio when we talked to them this Friday.
On Monday, they reported finding “another 8 refrigerators, a couple of stoves, and I don’t even how many more microwaves,” Brown said. “As for what they were planning to do with all of these appliances, we are not really sure if they were going to sell them at flea markets, on Craigslist, or what. We know they have pawned a few, but they could have opened a store with all of these appliances. This is probably $100,000 worth of stuff.”
“It just never ends,” Brown said.
A 36-year-old male suspect was charged with Burglary of a Habitation. He was booked on September 27. He was booked into Medina County Jail with a $25,000 Surety Bond.
