Chase into Pottawattamie County helps authorities nab burglary suspect

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (WOWT) - Another stolen gun taken off Omaha-metro area streets by Iowa deputies helped law enforcement solve a few other crimes as well.

Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s deputies found the stolen weapon after chasing two people on the run from Mills County Sheriff’s deputies.

It all started when a Mills County deputy noticed a vehicle traveling with expired plates. When they tried to stop the car, the driver took off, and headed toward Pottawattamie County.

Mills County called ahead, and Pottawattamie County deputies were waiting with stop sticks on the road. The car eventually crashed, and the two people in the car took off.

“Both of the subjects ended up running from the car, and both were eventually arrested after a pretty lengthy foot pursuit,” said Adam Fields, an investigator with the Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Office.

Fields said it was teamwork between the two agencies that made the stop possible.

“The Mills County dispatcher did a great job. Our dispatcher did a great job, and just communicating — not only what to look for, where they were going, the direction of travel, who was involved.”

When Pottawattamie County got a search warrant to go through the vehicle, they found a stolen gun — that gun lead them to evidence of a number of burglaries in the area.

“The gun has a serial number, and that serial number had been reported stolen,” said Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Sgt. Jim Doty, who is with the investigative unit. “So when they ran that serial number, that came back to one of our burglaries in Neola, and our investigators are able to piece all other pieces of property together from that.”

Doty said a number of burglaries that took place last week in Pottawattamie and Sarpy counties were linked to the stolen gun. Law enforcement said it was good teamwork that stopped this car and got a stolen gun off the streets.

“Typically, when we have these stolen weapons, they change hands very fast. So just because our bad guy took that gun, they typically don’t have it for very long. And before you know it, it could be in somebody’s hands — you know, somebody who’s going to use it in another crime.”

The Iowa State Patrol and Council Bluffs Police also helped apprehend the suspects.

The stolen items were returned to their rightful owners. Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s officials said it’s a good idea to keep and record serial numbers of any of your valuables because if they are reported stolen, law enforcement can check the serial number against a nationwide data bank to get the property back to its owner.

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