About $100,000 worth of stolen items, including from thefts in Edinburgh, Franklin and Whiteland, was recovered in Columbus, and some of those items are now being returned.
Two people were arrested after a traffic stop in Columbus earlier this month, and that led investigators to find hundreds of items in a garage and storage unit that were reported stolen last year and the year before.
Some of the items have been returned to the owners using serial numbers and other identification that could be matched through a national database police use to track stolen merchandise, police said.
In the traffic stop earlier this month, officers found 70 syringes, methamphetamine, a gun and a number of stolen items that police were able to trace back to thefts and burglaries in Columbus, Edinburgh, Franklin, Seymour, Freetown and Whiteland, said Lt. Matt Harris, Columbus Police Department spokesman. Officers also searched a storage facility and a garage and found Social Security cards, passports, mail, tools, lawn equipment, stereo equipment, flat-screen televisions, a 12-gauge shotgun and a stolen vehicle. Some items might have been stolen from deliveries to homes, Harris said.
Brian J. Stewart, 35, and Norma J. Holley, 34, both of Columbus, were arrested on charges of possession of a drug-injection device, possession of methamphetamine, possession of a controlled substance, receiving stolen auto parts, three counts of theft, possession of a handgun without a license, trespassing and three counts of conversion.
Stewart was being held in the Bartholomew County Jail on $787,500 bond. Holley was being held without bond, jail officials said.