Shoplifter leads police to loot and drugs www.privateofficer.com

VICTORVILLE CA. Dec. 23, 2007 — Deputies found about $4,000 worth of stolen property, as well as a large amount of marijuana packaged for sales at a local home Saturday morning. Around 8:45 a.m. Saturday employees from the Gottshalks store at the Mall of Victor Valley reported that a man had stolen six Estee Lauder gift sets, valued at $70 each, from the store, said Sgt. J, Schuler from the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department Victorville station. The man was seen leaving the store in a Chevrolet Tahoe, and an employee was able to get the full license plate and provided that information to authorities as well. The man was identified as Howard Offley, 36, of Victorville by loss prevention employees who remembered him from a retail theft from the same location in the past, Schuler said. Deputies were able to determine that Offley lived at a residence in the 13700 block of Arthur Drive, and they subsequently wrote a search warrant for the home, officials said. Around 11 a.m. they served the warrant and found Offley and several family members, along with roughly $4,000 of stolen property, most of it from Gottshalks, Schuler said. Some of the property was identified as coming from a residential burglary, officials said. They also found the marijuana and arrested Offley on suspicion of burglary, grand theft and possession of marijuana for sales, Schuler said.

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