3 charged in LR burglary ring

$3,200 in electronics taken from 5 homes, police say

— Little Rock police arrested three men Wednesday who they said were involved in a burglary ring that operated across the city, according to arrest reports.

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Kenneth Johnson, 16, of 2724 Wolfe St. and Roderick Thornton, 18, and Robert Thornton, 18, both of 2701 Wolfe St. were each charged with six counts of residential burglary, four counts of property theft and one count of fleeing, after they led officers on a short foot chase in south Little Rock, the reports stated.

Roderick Thornton and Robert Thornton, who are twins, admitted to burglarizing six homes and then told officers they’d been involved in about 30 burglaries “in recent months,” the arrest reports said. Several items, mostly electronics, worth an estimated $3,200, were taken from five of the six homes, reports said.

The burglaries culminated about 8:40 a.m. Wednesday, when a woman living at 2820 S. State St. heard something break near her kitchen, a police report said. The resident went to see what had happened and saw a man jump from the window, the report said. She didn’t notice anything missing, but found a broken window and a black flip-flop inside the kitchen, police said.

As the woman reported the break-in, a police sergeant who was nearby saw three men running away from the area, the report said. Police chased the men on foot and arrested them a few blocks away, officers said.

They were taken to the Pulaski County jail, where they remained Thursday night in lieu of a $20,000 bond each.

The Thornton twins were first implicated in the thefts after a Nov. 30 burglary at 2710 S. Summit St., according to the police report. A female resident told officers she left her home for an hour and returned to find a window air-conditioning unit pushed inside, the report stated.

An Xbox gaming system, a Sony 32-inch flat-screen TV and an eMachine laptop were taken from her home, police said. Officers talked to another woman in the home, who told them Roderick Thornton and Robert Thornton were at the home the day before and told her they were breaking into houses in Sunset Terrace, the report said.

That burglary wasn’t the only one that day to which they admitted.

The trio told officers about break-ins at 3600 High Drive and 3712 High Drive, where the residents reported more electronics missing as well as a pair of Nike tennis shoes, the police reports said.

Little Rock police also had responded to a Nov. 12 burglary at 2719 S. Schiller St., where the woman there noticed her back door was open and a broken window, the report said. The resident reported a laptop, worth approximately $50, missing, according to the police report.

In a burglary Sunday at 2820 S. Battery St., the resident returned to a ransacked home, but reported nothing missing, police said.

None of the stolen items has been recovered, Little Rock police spokesman Sgt. Cassandra Davis said.

Arkansas, Pages 11 on 12/07/2012

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