A citizen who saw a Facebook posting about property stolen from the Placer Land Trust led Placer County sheriff’s deputies to a chop shop and four arrests Sunday morning.
Friday, the Placer Land Trust filed a report with the Auburn Police Department after their Ford Truck, a Polaris side-by-side and a lawn mower were stolen. Someone from the land trust posted photos of the stolen items on Facebook and asked for the public’s help in locating them.
Sunday morning, a citizen who thought they knew the whereabouts of some of the items called the Placer County Sheriff’s Office. When deputies and officers from the Regional Auto Theft Task Force (RATTF) arrived at a residence in the 7500 block of O’Haver Lane in Loomis, they ended up discovering five stolen vehicles, all of the Placer Land Trust property, plus several stolen motorcycle engines and frames.
The frames had the vehicle identification numbers removed at the chop shop located on the property.
Four men were arrested and booked at the Placer County Jail. They were: Richard Burns, 35, who lived at the residence and was charged with operating a chop shop, four counts of possession of stolen property, grand theft and criminal conspiracy; Nicholas Reed Williams, 21, of Auburn, same charges as Burns, except for three counts of stolen property, not four; Lawrence Nicholas Olsen, 31, transient, charged with possession of stolen vehicle parts; and Joseph Collier, 19, of Auburn, charged with possession of narcotics and paraphernalia.
The investigation is still ongoing and further arrests are pending.