The illegal ring was discovered by the police in a sting
We were tipped off by one of our informants about an illegal ring of people that were selling brand new AC units.
- The AC units were still brand new in the box and people were buying them out of the back of a truck for half price.
At first, we had to do a lot of investigative work. We talked to lots of different people and we performed surveillance for two weeks. After that, we put someone undercover to infiltrate the theft ring. One of our new guys was sent to the truck to buy a new AC unit. The guy told the person running the truck that he works for an AC parts warehouse and could get his hands on some more materials. After that it was pretty easy to get the bad guy to give up his main supplier. The guy was singing like a caged bird when we had him processed and ready to book for multiple years in prison. It turns out that the AC units were stolen from a warehouse in another state. They were shipped to this area because the temperatures are much warmer during the summer and the AC units can fetch more money than they could in that place. The person that we charged with a crime turned out to be the grandson of one of the judges that serves in this county so the entire case was on the news for months. The trial was televised every single day and people followed the news on the case for months after it was over.