Sheriff departments investigating burglaries

A man walking near a black Ford pickup while a woman sat in the passenger seat were caught on C & M Supply’s cameras in Chester at about 5 a.m., June 26. 
Manager Perry Gunn said he saw the security footage and there was definitely a woman in the truck while the man stole four packs of cigarettes. 
“Someone threw a hunk of metal through the front door. Our alarm system went off,” Gunn said. 
Photos of the 2010 or newer Ford F250 Super Duty pickup and the man were posted on Facebook. The pickup’s bed was full of tires and other items. People are advised to contact the sheriff’s office in Republic County or Thayer County if they see the vehicle.Republic County Under-sheriff Eric Brunner said the camera footage wasn’t clear enough to see the license plate, but Brunner said it is from Kansas. 
“It’s just blurry enough we can’t read it. We watched the video yesterday for a couple of hours, but that little movement throws the tag off,” he said.
The man was too blurry to identify, but both the man and woman are white, and the woman has dark hair. 
Brunner added the sheriff’s office will post updates on its Facebook page. 
Sergeant Dale Reece at the Thayer County Sheriff’s Office said it’s “reasonable” to link the burglary at C&M to the early morning June 25 burglary at The Corner Market in Byron.
“I have my suspicion it was involved in the Byron incident,” Reece said.
Whoever broke into Doyle and Linda Heitmann’s store didn’t take much either — $30 to $40 worth of groceries were gone. But the brick thrown at the front window to gain entrance did about $1,000 worth of damage. The Heitmanns have been running Byron’s only grocery store for about 10 years. 
Rod Watson of Deshler Motors said he thinks it was two or three people who burglarized his business sometime during the night June 25 or early morning June 26. 
“They pried a plywood cover off the side of the building, where there had been a ventilation fan, and then broke through the sheet rock,” he said. 
The thieves took every kind of automotive part imaginable — Watson said spark plug wires, windshield wipers, oil and oil filters were among the items missing.
“Batteries too, just anything in the shop,” he said. 
Reece said tools and office supplies were taken as well, along with a 1970 K10 4-wheel drive that belongs to one of Watson’s customers. As of June 28, Watson was still working on the list of stolen items.