Alert neighbor helps Porter County police nab 2 burglary suspects
By Maria Amante mamante@post-trib.com | 648-3072 June 9, 2012 3:09PM
Timothy Ericksen, Porter County burglary. June 9, 2012, Sun-Times Media
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Updated: July 11, 2012 10:29AM
VALPARAISO — A watchful neighbor helped halt a burglary in Morgan Township on Friday morning by calling Porter County Sheriff’s police to the scene.
Aaron Steed, 21, of Valparaiso, and Timothy Ericksen, 28, of Monticello, were arrested and sent to Porter County Jail, where they were being held without bond on charges of burglary.
The Porter County Sheriff’s Department believes the duo is responsible for other burglaries in the area, and the investigation is ongoing.
On Friday morning, officers arrived to a home in the 400 block of East County Road 300S and found a sliding door open and a rear window forced open. Several bags and a large flat-screen television were lying on the lawn outside the sliding door.
The neighbor told police that one man fled from the scene in a vehicle and a second suspect fled into the woods behind the residence.
With the help of his police dog Joker, Sgt. Matt Edwards found Ericksen in the woods behind the home. Police took him to Porter hospital for treatment of police dog bites to his leg.
Steed, who had fled in a vehicle, was arrested after a search by Detective Cmdr. Jeff Biggs and Detective Sgt. Tim Manteuffel.
“This is an excellent exampe of how valuable it is to have neighbors watching out for each other and calling in any suspicious activity that they observe,” Sheriff’s Police spokesman Sgt. Larry LaFlower said in a statement. “If it weren’t for this neighbor that saw a suspicious vehicle in the area, we might not have caught these burglars.”
LaFlower also said that most burglaries occur during the day when people are at work, so neighbors should contact police if they notice suspicious vehicles in their neighbors’ driveways or suspicious people walking through yards or the neighborhood.
