Two face charges for stealing trailer loads of property

BENTON, Mo. — Trailer loads of stolen property have been recovered, and two Stoddard County residents have been arrested and charged following a multijurisdictional investigation in Scott County.

Lindsey Huckstep

Mitchell Kennard, 37, and Lindsey Huckstep, 39, of Dexter, Missouri, are each charged with class D felony of second-degree burglary and stealing. Both have bonds of $25,000 cash or surety.

According to Scott County Sheriff Wes Drury, the Scott County Sheriff's Office received information about a suspect vehicle that was seen at several burglaries of storage units in Chaffee, Missouri, and Cape Girardeau County, Missouri. Detectives made contact with two subjects — Kennard and Huckstep.

Huckstep had two active City of Miner, Missouri, warrants and was taken into custody, Drury said. While on scene, Chaffee Police Department contacted Scott County and advised that charges had been filed against Kennard and Huckstep for burglary and stealing, the sheriff said.

Also, Scott County detectives determined the camper Kennard and Huckstep were staying in was stolen from a property in Scott County earlier in the year, Drury said. Information was obtained from Kennard and Huckstep about several storage unit break-ins in Chaffee and Cape Girardeau County from November to the present.

Scott County detectives were granted two search warrants: one for the stolen camper and another for a storage unit in Dexter. During the execution of the search warrants, law enforcement officers recovered two trailer loads of stolen property from the camper and another two trailer loads of stolen property from the storage unit in Dexter. Chaffee and Cape Girardeau County both identified items stolen from their burglaries.

Because of the amount of stolen items recovered, Scott County Sheriff's Office had to rent a 40-foot cargo container to securely store the property, Drury said.

"Scott County Sheriff's Office has received information that other storage units in and around Scott County have been broken into but have not been reported to law enforcement," Drury said. "The suspects would often cut the original lock and replace it with a different lock they had a key to. We're asking citizens to check their units."

Anyone who believes their storage unit has been burglarized may contact the Scott County Sheriff's Office at (573) 545-3525 or message at @SheriffScottMO63736 on Facebook.