Amador County – Authorities say a man who put up a sign warning of burglars in Amador County may be impatient with a case close to him, but authorities are doing their best in the case.

Bob VanDePol put up a sign Monday near the corner of Molfino Road and Highway 88 that said: “Warning! Burglars in this area!” after a relative of his was burglarized in April. He said he did it due to what he called a string of burglaries between Molfino Road and Ousby Road.

Sheriff Martin Ryan said he was not sure why VanDePol put up the sign now, but he had spoken with the victims of that crime in April, and they shared information with him on whom they believed was responsible. Ryan said: “The laws don’t allow us to do some of the things that they wanted us to do in this case.” He discussed the limitations in the case with the victims.

Ryan said the Sheriff’s department is “going to pursue it as we do all of our other cases, to the fullest extent,” and they “have to make sure that we’ve got the right people.”

VanDePol said he thought the sheriff’s department had “completely washed their hands of this” case, and he had a good idea who burglarized the house and he wanted the sheriff to search someone’s home.

The Sheriff defended the department’s work, and said: “We’re continuing to work and follow leads in that case. It’s still active, it’s still being worked.”

Sheriff’s personnel searched the premises and surrounding yard, finding footprints, fingerprints, and a broken barbed wire fence.

VanDePol said there had been four or five burglaries in the area since April, with no related arrests. But Sheriff’s department records showed three arrests in six burglary cases in the area since April, including two men arrested in June, and another arrest in November.

In another case, one of the victims reportedly did not know the crime had occurred until notified by authorities. Another case involved theft of money from a tip jar, and was dropped because the suspect was known to the victim. A third case ended when the victim requested that the deputy not dust for fingerprints.

The six cases between Ousby and Molfino Roads compares to 121 burglary cases reported in the sheriff’s jurisdiction since April. Those 121 include not just residential burglaries, but any instance where a person enters a building, vehicle or business with the intent to commit a felony, including attempting to smuggle drugs into jail.

Sheriff’s records showed such crimes are up from 68 such cases reported in the same time frame in 2009.

Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.