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Burglary ring broken with Sonoma arrest

Heroin addict, juvenile jailed

A recent rash of residential burglaries was likely halted last week with the arrest of a drug-addicted 28-year-old man who was parked in a black truck on First Street West after shooting up with heroin.

Harley Adkins, with connections in both the Sonoma Valley and Tehama County, was found at about 10:50 p.m. on Feb. 21 in a Chevrolet pickup truck linked to a residential burglary on Newcomb Street where a laptop computer was taken.

When he was arrested by a Sonoma Police officer, two briefcases that had contained $5,000 worth of mint condition collectible quarters, depicting every state in the union and stolen from a West MacArthur Street home, were found inside the truck along with other evidence of recent burglaries.

Some of the stolen coins were still in the truck as well, along with the business card of a Santa Rosa coin dealer who had purchased $4,100 worth of coins and jewelry from Adkins. When police contacted the dealer he said he had set aside the items purchased from Adkins, because he suspected they might be stolen.  Surveillance video at the dealer’s shop revealed Adkins in the company of a 17-year-old male, who was traced to a home in the Springs. A search there turned up more stolen goods as well as some three pounds of processed marijuana.

Also in Adkins’ truck was a social security card and other documents linked to a residential robbery on Trinity Road on Feb. 20.

The telltale pickup truck alerted Sonoma police after they investigated the Newcomb Street burglary, where the homeowner returned to find her husband’s cameras lying on a living room sofa, a laptop missing and other rooms of the home ransacked.

A neighbor told police a large, black truck not familiar in the neighborhood, had been parked in front of the victim’s home until about 20 minutes before she returned.

According to Sonoma Police Sgt. Spencer Crum, the evidence tied Adkins to the burglary on West MacArthur Street, discovered by a returning homeowner at about 4 p.m. on Feb. 18. Entrance to the home had been gained through a 1-foot square bathroom window, beneath which police found two different sets of footprints. They also spotted wheel marks on the driveway leading to the street they presume came from a wheeled suitcase used to carry off the loot.

When he was arrested, Adkins told police he had “a serious heroin problem” and was injecting himself with the drug several times a day.

He was found to have two outstanding warrants on drug charges and a failure to appear from Tehama County that totaled $305,000. He was booked into the county jail on three counts of first-degree residential burglary, along with three counts of commercial burglary for selling stolen property. His bail, including the warrants, was set at $460,000.

The juvenile was booked into juvenile hall charged with possession of stolen property and possessing marijuana for sale.