BonnerSprings.com

Two 16-year-olds are in custody for a crime spree that swept through Wyandotte County.

The Wyandotte County District Attorney’s Office on Tuesday charged a Bonner Springs girl and an Edwardsville boy, both Bonner SPrings HIgh School sophomores, with several counts of felonies, including dozens of burglaries, and setting the Aug. 25 fire at Chad Franklin Suzuki, 6801 State Ave.

Wyandotte County District Judge Wesley K. Griffin ordered both juveniles detained, and set arraignment for Nov. 7 for the boy and Nov. 10 for the girl, both in Division 15 of the Wyandotte County Courthouse Juvenile Department.

The boy is charged with 16 counts of burglary, nine counts of felony theft, six counts of misdemeanor theft, three counts of felony criminal damage to property and 12 counts of misdemeanor criminal damage to property.

The girl is charged with 10 counts of burglary, eight counts of felony theft, seven counts of misdemeanor criminal damage to property, two counts of misdemeanor theft and one

count of felony criminal damage to property.

Before their arrests, Bonner Springs Police detectives Vickie Fogarty and Ron Crouss questioned the two for an unrelated crime, said Bonner Springs Police Lt. Rick Schubert.

The suspects were detained Thursday and Friday and are being held in the Wyandotte County Juvenile Detention Center.

Among the sites the two are charged with burglarizing are the Bonner Springs-Edwardsville School District central office and two residences.

The first burglary they’re charged with was Feb. 7 at Miller Pharmacy, 207 Oak St., on Feb. 7. About $30,500 worth of Oxycontin — about 10,000 pills — and a “small amount of cash” was taken Feb. 7. They’re also charged in a June 25 burglary at Miller in which about $1,500 worth of hydrocodone, another narcotic, was taken.

Schubert said he didn’t want to speculate whether the burglars were selling the drugs, but the amount taken was “a lot.”

Vesta Lee Lumber, 2300 S. 1138th St., was the scene of several burglaries in which the suspects are charged. The lumber business was burglarized Feb. 27, March 27, June 20, July 17, Aug. 8 and Aug. 28, with the thieves making off with a total of about $200 combined.

The money taken in each Vesta Lee burglary was “just change” left in the cash register drawer, Schubert said, which makes the second and later burglaries of Vesta Lee puzzling.

The central office of the Bonner Springs-Edwardsville School District, 2200 S. 138th St., was burglarized June 15, and about $5,000 worth of tools and a pickup truck were stolen from the maintenance shed. The pickup was never recovered, Schubert said.

On March 4, Custom Limousine, 11531 Kaw Drive, was burglarized, with about $14,000 in damage and stolen goods, including flat-screen television sets from limousines.

In another Custom Limousine burglary on April 28, thieves stole a pickup truck, a DVD player and scrap materials such as batteries, radiators and alternators, amounting to an estimated loss of $5,300. The pickup truck was recovered later that day.

Creative Landscaping, 11565 Kaw Drive, was burglarized March 26, with a pickup truck and tools valued at $13,100 stolen. The truck was recovered in Kansas City, Kan.

On Aug. 12, tools and a truck estimated at $9,300 were stolen from a residential home on the 800 block of S. 34th Street in Kansas City, Kan., and another home in the 1000 block of 134th Street in Bonner Springs had about $2,000 worth of tools stolen.

The tools from the second home and the truck from the first were recovered.

Lastly, the two teens are charged with arson in the Aug. 25 fire at Chad Franklin Suzuki, 6801 State Ave., which resulted in estimated damages of more than $150,000 to 10 vehicles.

Schubert said the arrests and charges were the result of “some very good police work by my detectives (Fogarty and Crouss).”

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