BonnerSprings.com

The plague of business burglaries along Kaw Drive in Edwardsville and Bonner Springs in the last six months may be over. At least that's what local business owners are hoping.

On May 20, Edwardsville Police arrested two men for the burglary and theft of toolboxes from Holliday Sand and Gravel, 11101 Kaw Drive.

Forrest Everett, 20, Edwardsville, and Randy Wall Jr., 27, Bonner Springs, were arrested in Edwardsville and charged with burglary, felony theft and possession of drug paraphernalia. Wall was also charged with theft of a weed trimmer from the Bonner Springs Public Works maintenance shed. The men were each released May 28 from Wyandotte County Jail on a $10,000 bond.

Detective Guy Redinger with the Edwardsville Police Department said the arrests were made acting on a tip that the stolen property might be in an Edwardsville residence.

Police found the toolboxes with a search warrant at the residence of both men and the toolboxes were positively identified by staff of Holliday.

Mike Clouse, a manager at Holliday Sand and Gravel, said Monday he was optimistic the two arrestees were behind the rash of burglaries that businesses along K-32 had been suffering the past six months, and the absence of any burglaries since their arrests gave him hope.

Redinger said he couldn't comment on whether he thought the men were responsible for previous burglaries but that the possibility was being investigated.

Holliday had been burglarized twice recently before the last incident, and several other businesses in the area had suffered losses estimated at a total of more than $500,000, said Dave Edmondson, owner of Custom Limousine, 11531 Kaw Drive.

About six weeks ago several of the business owners met to discuss and plan for a crime-watch group for their properties. The group is still deciding on a name. Edmondson and the other members may have to confront, sooner than they expected, the question of whether and how their mission would continue once the burglars are caught.

For more information or to join Edmondson's crime-watch association for business owners, e-mail him at tom@kctransportation.com.

Anyone with information on the burglaries and vehicle thefts along K-32 between K-7 and 98th Street, beginning November 2007, can call Crime Stoppers at (816) 474-8477, the Bonner Springs Police Department at (913) 422-7800, or the Edwardsville Police Department at (913) 441-6983.

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