Posted: Monday, June 9, 2008 12:00 am
SWEET HOME - Two brothers were arrested Saturday after allegedly stealing metal items from a retirement center and cemetery in Sweet Home.
The Sweet Home Police Department and the Linn County Sheriff's Office investigated the cases.
Sweet Home Police Chief Bob Burford gave this account:
Around 9:15 p.m. Saturday, the grounds caretaker at Wiley Creek Community Retirement Center, 5050 Mountain Fir Road, said he had heard from a resident that a pickup loaded with wire fencing had recently left the property. The caretaker checked the property and discovered 60 feet of fencing and a metal bench had been stolen.
An officer spotted a pickup matching the description of the vehicle that had left the retirement center and stopped it.
The stolen fence and bench were in the back, along with irrigation pipe, copper wire and metal grave markers that had been taken from Gilliland Cemetery, 4990 Airport Road.
According to the sheriff's office, which took the cemetery theft case, the men said they planned to return to the cemetery to ask about taking the metal and to see about cleaning up the property in exchange for scrap metal.
The metal taken from the cemetery was valued at about $1,700.
Kevin Lynn Hutson, 53, and Dell Louis Hutson, 48, both of Sweet Home, were lodged in the Linn County Jail on charges of theft and burglary.
Dell Hutson also had an outstanding warrant from the Sweet Home Municipal Court.
Carrie Petersen