Tip leads Woodward deputies to theft ring

A tip from a neighboring sheriff’s office has helped the Woodward County Sheriff’s Office stumble across a possible larceny ring that spans several counties.

On Aug. 30, Woodward County Dep. Joe Adams received a call from Dewey County Undersheriff Clay Sanders who informed Adams that “one of his men told him that there was a trailer being painted in a corner lot over in Mooreland and he suspected it might be one stolen from Seiling.”

With that tip, Adams said he drove by the residence in question and noted that it did bear resemblance to the description of the car hauler trailer that was stolen from Seiling. So the deputy contacted Sanders back to get a number for the owner of the missing trailer, whose description matched the trailer found in Mooreland “to a ‘T.’”

“There were some things about that trailer that were different than anybody else’s trailer would have been,” Adams said.

For example, the deputy noted that “underneath the trailer the owner had put new metal braces under there and painted them yellow.

“That’s not normally on every trailer and that matched up,” he said.

Once it was confirmed that the trailer was the same one that was stolen from Seiling, Adams said he obtained consent from property resident Norma Patterson to search the rest of her Mooreland property including a barn and a lean to, but not the house. In the search, the deputy discovered a three-tier horse trailer and a Polaris ATV that were also stolen.

However, Patterson denied knowledge that the items were stolen, claiming that a friend had just dropped the vehicles off at her house, Adams said.

While sheriff’s deputies were searching Patterson’s property, another Mooreland resident Jimmie Lehman showed up at the property to ask what was going on, the deputy said, noting that Lehman claimed he was concerned because he was dating Patterson.

Lehman’s presence aroused Adam’s suspicions. So on Sept. 4, Adams and Capt. Kevin Mitchell went to Lehman’s residence to interview him.

During the interview, the sheriff’s officers obtained consent to search a field located behind Lehman’s home, Adams said.

There were a number of vehicles parked in the field, including two flatbed trailers, one large and one small, that were both also stolen from the Oklahoma City area, the deputy said.

A fuel tank was strapped onto the smaller trailer, he said, noting that the tank was also believed to have been stolen. In addition, further searching yielded the discovery of a stolen welder, he said.

But like Patterson, Lehman denied knowing that items were stolen, Adams said, noting that Lehman claimed “he didn’t know who they belonged to or how they got there.”

Besides confiscating the four trailers, ATV and welder from both residences, the Woodward County Sheriff’s Office did not take immediate action against either Patterson or Lehman.

“We knew we were going to make an arrest,” Adams said, but explained that the arrests were delayed in order “to get more information.”

The deputy would not release further details about what type of information the sheriff’s office was trying to obtain, noting that it pertains to an ongoing investigation.

But Lehman and Patterson couldn’t escape their fate and were both arrested Saturday evening. They were then charged with possession of stolen property in Woodward County District Court Monday.

Adams noted that bond for each of them was originally set at $100,000, but was reduced to $25,000 a piece and both Lehman and Patterson were able to bond out.

Although Adams and others in the sheriff’s office, including Mitchell, were happy about being able to arrest Lehman and Patterson, the case is far from over.

“We’re thrilled to death we got two arrests,” Adams said. “But we’d really like to make more arrests than that.”

“There are definitely more arrests coming on this deal,” Mitchell said. “It just might take a while.”

One thing that is prolonging the continued investigation is the fact that neither Lehman nor Patterson have provided the sheriff’s office with any names, other than one first name, of any who might be responsible for the thefts or know more about them.

However, deputies have received information that leads them to “suspect (those responsible) are taking things from here down to Oklahoma City,” Adams said.

“We know they are getting stuff from the city and bringing it up here,” he said. “We think if we can catch (those responsible) we might be able to stop a ring of thefts.”

Beyond stopping the thefts, Adams said “what we’d really like to do is recover a lot of the things that were stolen from around here.

Text Only