Crime update in Sonoma Valley

Grand theft

Three men took $1,386 worth of tools from Friedman’s Home Improvement July 15, according to Sonoma Police Sgt. Scott McKinnon.

A Friedman’s employee noticed the theft of numerous tools occurring at 11:50 a.m. as the suspects left the store and made no attempt to pay, McKinnon said.

The employee took photos of the suspects’ Dodge Ram 15000 pickup truck as it left the store’s parking lot. Friedman’s employees then reviewed in-store video surveillance, which showed the suspects enter at 11:30 a.m., McKinnon said.

The suspects wandered around the store for several minutes before grabbing a Milwaukee impact wrench, rotary hammer, brushless hammer drill and tool set.

Vandalism

A speed limit monitoring device was ripped off a light pole and discarded sometime overnight before July 16 in the 800 block of East Napa Street, McKinnon said.

The sign was discarded about 100 yards from its original location. Police have contacted city officials to fix the sign.

No surveillance exists for the location, and police do not have any leads at this time, he said.

Fraud

A Sonoma woman had a fraudulent car loan of $24,669 taken out in her name from Silveira Chevrolet car dealership July 12, McKinnon said.

The woman initially received a report for a credit check sometime in June. On July 12, she received a second alert from Credit Wise that CarMax had opened an account in her name for a car loan, McKinnon said.

The woman froze all her information through the three credit reporting services, McKinnon said.

Sonoma police are investigating the incident and are in contact with Silveira Chevrolet to gather more information.

Grand theft

A person stole more than $1,300 of copper wire from an electricians’s truck in the 18000 block of Highway 12 around 6:20 p.m. July 11, McKinnon said.

A Sonoma police deputy on patrol in the area was flagged down by the victim, an electrician working on a remodeling business, McKinnon said.

Between 6:19 p.m. and 6:21 p.m., an unknown suspect stole approximately 500 feet of copper wire from inside a metal conduit located at the rear of the business, McKinnon said.

There is no surveillance video available from the scene and there are no current leads, he said.

Contact Chase Hunter at [email protected] and follow @Chase_HunterB on Twitter.