POLICE INVESTIGATING THEFT OF ‘LARGE ABOUNT OF MONEY’ AT FREEMAN SHOPPING CENTER
Freeman Police Chief Barron Nankivel confirmed Tuesday afternoon, July 29 that a suspect had been taken into custody in conjunction with a theft at the Freeman Shopping Center.
The incident came one month after three individuals stole a Polaris Ranger from Saarie Auto Body and were subsequently arrested and charged.
Nankivel told The Courier that the theft occurred at the Highway 81 grocery/hardware store over the noon hour Tuesday afternoon, July 22, when surveillance cameras show a man entering the office at the front of the store.
“You can see him going through some of the desk drawers, and then he opened up a filing cabinet,” Nankivel said. “We saw he then grabbed a bunch of money (out of a cash box), stuffed it down his pants, put his shirt over it and managed to leave the shopping center through the Subway area.”
Nankivel said last week that the suspect left the scene in an early-2010s-model red Ford Fusion with dealer plates and was believed the individual is in the Yankton area.
“We’ve put many, many leads out there,” he said, noting he has posted the crime report through the South Dakota Fusion Center, which connects multiple agencies, and the incident has also been posted on Facebook by the Freeman Shopping Center, which of Sunday had been shared 325 times.
Nankivel also said last week that had received a number of calls indicating a vehicle matching the description had been spotted around the lake area in Yankton, “but by the time I can get any units there, they’re gone.”
Nankivel noted that law enforcement is hoping to work quickly in its investigation because of the large amount of money taken.
“There’s always a sense of urgency to catch criminals, but this was a large amount of money, “ he said. “We’re not talking petty theft here. That ups the urgency a little bit.”
If anybody has information on the theft they are being asked to contact the Freeman Shopping Center at 605-925-4781 or the Freeman Police Department at 605-925-7025.
