Lussier
McDonald
PUTNAM VALLEY – Three suspects have been arrested in a string of thefts in the Town of Putnam Valley. The arrests followed a manhunt in a wooded area of the town of Saturday, October 28.
Stolen vehicles and guns were recovered.
The Putnam County Sheriff’s Office received several phone calls from residents in the Wildwood Knolls neighborhood on Saturday morning. Several callers said their vehicles, parked in their driveways, had been broken into during the overnight hours. One victim reported that a detached garage on an Evergreen Way property had been broken into and two motorcycles were stolen. Another resident reported his loaded handgun had been stolen from his vehicle.
At about 2:45 p.m. on Saturday, one of the larceny victims noticed two males riding around the neighborhood on an ATV and recognized them as suspects in the thefts. The victim called 911 and followed the two in his vehicle.
The two suspects on the ATV attempted to elude the vehicle and the two vehicles collided. The suspects jumped off the ATV and after a brief confrontation, the suspects ran into a wooded area.
A search ensued involving sheriff’s deputies and investigators,
a K-9 unit and a State Police helicopter.
Through witness interviews and security camera video recordings, police identified at-large suspects. An investigator called the cell phone of one of the suspects and persuaded him and his accomplice to come out of the woods and surrender. The stolen handgun and ammunition were later recovered from the woods and the two stolen motorcycles were also located.
As the investigation continued, a third suspect was discovered to be in possession of other stolen property, including a motorcycle that had not been reported and a rifle reported stolen from a car in the Floridan Estates area a few weeks before.
David Lussier, 17, and Owen McDonald, 16, both of Putnam Valley were both charged with grand larceny and criminal possession of stolen property. Both were sent to the Putnam County Jail in lieu of $2,500 cash bail or $5,000 bond each. The 15-year-old, charged with two counts of criminal possession of stolen property, was released to his mother to await action in family court.
The stolen motorcycle and rifle were recovered.
A warrant search of the residence of one of the suspects yielded several items of property that had been reported stolen from vehicle break-ins over the last several months.
