Detectives say a tip led them to arrest a Pennsylvania man in connection with the theft of wheels and tires from newly purchases police patrol cars in Lincoln County.
The wheels and tires were taken from new patrol cars parked in a lot in Lincolnton, the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office says.
According to detectives, an investigator in the case found the new tires installed on a Jeep at a residence in the 300 block of East Hoke Street in Lincolnton. The owner of the vehicle had asked a local business to replace the tires on the Jeep with the tires that had been taken off the patrol cars. Deputies say workers at the business did not know the tires had been stolen.
The Lincoln County Sheriff's Office says Jonathan Wesley Herder, 58, of Pittsburgh, has been charged with buying and receiving stolen property. An arrest warrant filed in the case says Herder is charged with receiving five Goodyear Eagle tires and five steel wheels, with reasonable grounds to believe the property had been stolen.
The steel wheels have not been recovered, but detectives say they are working to find them. Herder is being held under $5,000 bond, and detectives say the investigation is continuing.
Copyright 2011 - The Charlotte Observer, N.C.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
