http://www.deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,700227791,00.html
Probe of antiques burglaries nets 6 arrests
By Pat Reavy
Deseret News
Published: Wednesday, May 21, 2008 1:06 a.m. MDT
A five-month investigation into a rash of high-end antiques burglaries
has culminated in the arrests of six people and warrants issued for at
least two others, Salt Lake police announced Tuesday.
Two of the people arrested were well known locally in the antiques and
art community, including one man that some say was the main high-end
antiques dealer in Salt Lake City.
Anthony Christensen, 62, the owner of Anthony's Antiques and Fine Art,
401 E. 200 South, was arrested and charged in 3rd District Court with
theft by receiving stolen property, a second degree felony. John
Pilcher, 66, another well known buyer and seller, was charged with the
same crime as a co-defendant.
For about a year, a group of people have been breaking into homes
throughout Salt Lake and Summit counties and stealing valuable antique
art, according to police. Investigators believed the group wasn't just
guessing what was valuable and what wasn't.
"We have recovered thousand of dollars worth of property," said Salt
Lake police detective Jeff Bedard. "This wasn't just nickel and dime
kind of stuff."
How the burglars knew which homes to burglarize was still being
investigated Tuesday. But Bedard noted some of the people arrested
"used to be employed in the antiques field, so they new what had value
and what didn't."
After stealing the valuable merchandise, the group would sell the
property to local antique stores, coin shops and metal recyclers,
according to police.
Bedard said Tuesday additional arrests were possible.
Dennis Hobot, 41; Shane Kennedy, 42; Gerald Kory Lloyd, 61; and Sonny
Gines, 24, were each charged with burglary. Warrants were also issued
for Carrie Lynn Galloway, 30, and Ricky Hepner, 28, who were not in
custody as of Tuesday. Investigators believe the group was responsible
for most of the home burglaries, sometimes hitting the same home twice
and sometimes exchanging their stolen goods with each other as part of
a network-like scenario.
In February, a man had two paintings stolen from his house, according
to documents filed in 3rd District Court. On March 7, the homeowner
went to several antique stores looking for his paintings and to warn
the stores to be on the lookout. Anthony's Antiques said it did not
know about the stolen paintings.
A half-hour after the man got home, however, he received a call from
Anthony's that one of the paintings was there, court documents state.
Police learned that Pilcher bought the painting from Hobot for $1,000
in a "trunk-to-trunk" transaction in the parking lot of Sears. Pilcher
then sold the painting to Christensen for $5,000. Pilcher also bought
the second painting from Lloyd, and detectives found that one still in
his home, according to court documents.
In another incident, Kennedy met Hobot on Feb. 25 at a Salt Lake
County motel where the two exchanged a $45,000 painting, an amber lamp
valued at $3,000 and a purple Tiffany lamp valued at $4,500. Hobot
also helped Kennedy pack "three bags full of other items" into
Kennedy's vehicle, according to court documents.
That vehicle later got into a car accident. The owner of the stolen
merchandise later identified a toy truck valued at $145 that was found
in the wrecked vehicle as well as a piece of purple glass that matched
the Tiffany lamp.
The merchandise owner later found a $65 Cloisonne jar of his at one
pawn shop and nine photographs, worth more than $1,000, at yet another
pawn shop.
Other court documents say Hobot, Kennedy, Galloway and Hepner found
themselves talking one day about "the difficulty and resulting damage
removing wall-mounted televisions" from one particular residence.
Hobot then talked about a guitar he had stolen from the same residence
in a December 2007 burglary.
Utah state court records show Hobot, Kennedy and Lloyd have extensive
criminal histories including arrests and charges for forgery, drug
possession, exploiting the elderly, burglary, theft and operation of a
drug lab. Gines has had several felony arrests in Utah since 2006.
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