Crime Corner, March 4

Pahrump couple arrested after allegedly stealing $100k comic book collection

A Pahrump couple found themselves behind bars last week after allegedly stealing a comic book collection worth a small fortune.

Sara Hare and Alan Hare were arrested by the Nye County Sheriff’s Office on Feb. 24 and charged with four counts relating to a search warrant of their residence that yielded an alleged stolen comic book collection valued at $100,000.

After serving a search warrant via phone, the responding sheriff’s deputy made contact with the suspects at the location on East Wilson Road.

After entering the residence, the officer found about 2189 comic books located in the master bedroom and living room, in addition to two glass pipes, one glass pipe with a white crystalline substance suspected as methamphetamine, and two bags of suspected marijuana on the living room table, police said. Another glass pipe with a substance thought to be methamphetamine was also located on a workbench in the garage.

The 2189 comic books were reported stolen on Jan. 11, and the deputy was able to match several of the comic books to the list of stolen comic books given by the victim in that case.

Both Sara and Alan Hare were arrested on the four preliminary charges and booked into the Nye County Detention Center. Both Hares were drug tested, which presumptively tested positive for marijuana and methamphetamines.

Couple arrested after alleged stolen iPhone incident

A pair of Pahrump residents were taken into custody last week after allegedly being in possession of a stolen smartphone, then lying to police about the device’s whereabouts.

Erica Towner and Shayne Normandin were arrested by the Nye County Sheriff’s Office on Feb. 27 and charged with various preliminary counts resulting from the pair allegedly being in possession of a stolen iPhone.

Sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to Petrack Park after a teenage boy said he had dropped his iPhone on the Ring of Fire ride at the Balloon Festival and that someone else left the area with it.

Shortly after deputies arrived, the boy’s mother showed up to the scene and logged into an app that tracks iPhones.

The responding deputy began to track the phone and noticed that the location came in at the Rebel II station.

The officer approached the vehicle that the app tracked the phone to in the parking lot of the gas station and questioned Towner and Normandin, the occupants of the car.

Both suspects denied being in possession of the phone and displayed their own cellphones, which were not the iPhone that was missing.

After the vehicle left, the deputy tracked the phone on the app traveling behind the nearby Walmart. As the deputy approached the area the phone was yielding on the app, he saw the suspects’ car traveling in the area where the phone was shown to be located.

Two other deputies responded to the area and the initial officer noticed the phone’s location stopped moving at the area of Wilson Road and Ishani Ridge Court.

Two other deputies conducted another traffic stop on the two suspects, where Towner stated that she had thrown the phone out the window because “she panicked,” according to police.

The first responding deputy tracked the iPhone to the area and found it lying on the ground north of the road.

After recovering the phone, the responding deputy interviewed Towner and she said that the phone fell into her lap and that she thought it was her daughter’s friend’s, so she kept it as a prank.

Towner initially said that she threw the phone out of the sunroof after the initial contact with police when she panicked and that her passenger, Normandin, wasn’t aware of it.

After interviewing Normandin, deputies discovered that he wasn’t being truthful and he eventually confessed that he took the phone and he threw it out of the sunroof himself.

It was subsequently revealed that Towner told Normandin to get rid of the phone because it was stolen, which he did.

The two were transported to the Nye County Detention Center, where Towner refused to be strip-searched, sheriff’s deputies said. She eventually agreed to the search and a 16.1 gram bag of methamphetamine was located in her bra, along with a hypodermic device. A small bag of methamphetamine was also discovered on Normandin, which he divulged he got from Towner.

Towner was booked on preliminary charges of trafficking of methamphetamine, conspiracy to commit a crime, concealing evidence, possession of stolen property and petit larceny. Normandin was booked on preliminary charges of conspiracy to commit a crime, concealing evidence and possession of stolen property.

Contact reporter Mick Akers at makers@pvtimes.com. Follow @mickakers on Twitter.