Richland Police Arrest 5 Men Connected With Rash Of Car Break-Ins

By: Heather Burke |
Published: October 07, 2009

Richland Police arrest five young men accused of a rash of car break-ins at a subdivision there in August.
Investigators are looking for a sixth person.
Police are still searching for 22-year-old Eric Collins.
They tell us Collins is friends with the other five arrested.
Montreal Allen, Dewawn Beacham, and Antonio Lewis each face 30 counts of auto burglary.
Robert Pegues faces 29 counts of auto burglary and Aron Sanders faces 30 counts.
"To have this many burglaries with these young men is a real fearful thing," said Richland Police Chief Russel James.
James says car break-in cases are not easy to crack.
"This was a real cold case," said James. "I mean you don't have any suspects involved or apprehend at the scene, so you had to come up with something."
That's when investigators dusted the cars for fingerprints.
They examined everything they should have, then took that evidence to the crime lab, preserved it, and it led to a suspect," said James.
Which eventually led to four others.
James says the group hit about 30 cars in the "Southwind" subdivision in Richland.
"It's a real affront to your community to have that many car burglaries in one night," said James. "It does a lot of damage to the public trust, so to put those guys in jail is just outstanding."
Officers believe the suspects are also responsible for a rash of other car break-ins that happened around the metro this summer.