Reports reveal Boone Co. falls victim to an average of 10 property crimes per day
Columbia Police arrested two men Saturday for a string of car break-ins.
Josephus Howard and Courtney Wright were arrested on five counts of felony stealing, fraudulent use of a credit card device and property damage.
Wright posted a $20,000 bond and is not out of jail. 19-year-old Howard is still in Boone County Jail with a $20,000 bond. He is expected in court on June 19.
Officers had previously received four reports of purses being stolen at parks in the area, including Cosmo Park, Twin Lakes Park and Jay Dix Station. In all of those break-ins, the suspects shattered the window of the vehicle and stole the purse from the car.
ABC 17 News spoke exclusively with Samantha Lopez, one of the victims of a car break-in. Her credit card information assisted in the arrests of the two suspects.
“They caught them off camera footage from Grindstone Walmart, based off the credit card transaction they did off my credit card and I was able to give them that because I receive alerts from my credit card company,” Lopez said
Her vehicle was broken into Saturday at 4:30 p.m. at Twin Lakes Park during a family reunion.
“They busted out the window, we don’t know with what,” said Lopez. “The purse was underneath the seat on the passenger side.”
ABC 17 News found data from Missouri’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program that shows in the past five years, Boone County has seen an average of ten larceny or theft crimes per day. These property crimes total almost $7,000 worth of stolen items per day.
Lopez said the suspects stole her entire purse which had her house keys, “my wallet, my kid’s insurance information, my driver’s license, social, all my credit cards.”
Now, Lopez has a message for the suspects.
“I hope it was worth it, because you’re the one that’s going to do jail time, not me, and in the end, karma will come back around. So I’m not worried about it,” she said. “I had to pay for a window and get all new stuff, but I hope you suffer the real consequences.”
