Cops Pinch Columbus Man Who May Have Used Forged HUD Work Orders To Access Vacant Homes In Central Ohio Burglary Spree

In Delaware County, Ohio, the Westerville News & Public Opinion reports:

• The Delaware County Sheriff's Department has arrested a man suspected in 20 recent burglaries of vacant homes across Central Ohio, including 10 in Delaware County.Sheriff reports said Monte Shoemaker, 24, of Martinsburg Drive in Columbus, was arrested last Wednesday, June 1 after Cottage Realty, Inc. agent Dave Schulte saw two suspects entering one of his vacant properties on Dauer Court in Powell and called police.

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• When deputies found Shoemaker in the home, they retrieved keys to multiple homes along with out-of-state work orders for recently burglarized homes, according to reports. After further investigation, the [Housing] and Urban Development work orders that Shoemaker had been presenting to receive keys to homes were determined to be fake, according to reports.

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• On Monday, June 6, Sheriff Walter L. Davis III confirmed the department had found evidence to link Shoemaker to many recent burglaries of model homes in Delaware and Franklin counties.
• "The suspect can be linked to at least 10 (burglaries) in Delaware and we believe we're going on 10 in Franklin County -- a total of 20 burglaries in Central Ohio," he said "We're currently going through facts, data and evidence." Shoemaker has not yet been charged with the multiple breaking and entering crimes aside from the June 1 incident, according to Delaware County Municipal Court records.

For more, see Suspect may have used fake work orders to enter houses (A Columbus man is a suspect in 20 burglaries of vacant homes across Franklin and Delaware counties).