Eureka Police officers arrested three Illinois men after two of the men were seen dragging a cooler from a wooded area to a pickup that was stopped on West First Street. The cooler allegedly was filled with tools stolen from a nearby storage unit, police reported.
At about 3 a.m. Nov. 2, an officer saw a gray 1989 Ford F-150 stop on West First Street near Walton Drive. The officer reported two men got out of the pickup, walked into a nearby wooded area and they pulled a dolly that had a large blue cooler on it toward the road, the report said.
The officer turned on his cruiser’s lights and sirens, and the men let go of the cooler, got into the F-150 and drove away. However, a second Eureka Police cruiser stopped the pickup on West First Street, according to the report.
One of the men got out of the pickup and attempted to flee in the wooded area, but an officer stopped him and brought him back to the pickup. The officers then arrested a 58-year-old Granite City, Ill., man, a 54-year-old Wood River, Ill., man and a 34-year-old Granite City man, the report said.
When an officer searched the pickup, he allegedly found bolt cutters in the bed of the F-150. The officer also found tools inside the cooler that the men were allegedly bringing to the pickup, Eureka Police reported.
Another officer searched the area, and he allegedly found a storage unit that appeared to have been broken into at the iStorage facility at 306 W. Fourth St., which is off of Walton Drive. The lock on the unit appeared to have been cut, and there were multiple toolboxes inside the unit that appeared to have been gone through, the report said.
The three men were taken to the Police Station, where officers learned the older Granite City man was wanted by the St. Louis County Police in connection to a stolen vehicle, and the Wood River man was wanted by multiple Illinois law enforcement agencies on warrants. The third man was not wanted on any warrants, according to the report.
The older Granite City man was held for St. Louis County Police, but the other two men were released, pending the application for warrants, the report said.
Eureka Police will seek a charge against the men through the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office for second-degree burglary, second-degree property damage, felony stealing and trespassing, Capt. Michael Werges said.
Werges also said an officer contacted a 34-year-old Rockwall, Texas, man, whose name was on the side of the cooler, and that man confirmed the cooler and tools belonged to him. The man had lived in Eureka, and the cooler and tools, which were estimated to be worth $3,000, were returned to the storage unit.