Ax break-in suspect caught

by Jonathan Van Dyke

So the white stuff this spring might be worth something after all.

The Sublette County Sheriff’s Office (SCSO) apprehended a suspected burglar of Country Lane Liquor during the early morning of March 25.

Jeffrey Brost, 17, was apprehended after deputies tracked him throughout downtown Pinedale, through the High Country Suites and off toward the Pinedale Town Maintenance Facility.

However, tracking the suspect might have been considerably more difficult without his footprints left in the snow.

“The snow, obviously, is what did him in,” said Brian Ketterhagen, captain of investigations. “That’s how they tracked him.”

At about 12:40 a.m. dispatch got word that the alarm at Country Lane was going off. The front door had been shattered. Deputy Landon Call was the first one to the scene.

“He wasn’t far off,” Ketterhagen said. “He was there very quickly, just moments away.”

The front glass was broken with footprints leading away from the scene. Deputies Mark Farrell and Blanton Sanders would also help in a pursuit that led to the hotel and on to the maintenance facility. The suspect was hiding under the front end of a plow truck.

“[After interviewing the suspect] it was determined that he had entered the store with the intent to steal something after breaking the window with an ax,” Ketterhagen said. “He was attempting to steal something in the store, but got scared off by the burglary alarm.”

Brost is being charged as an adult on counts of burglary, property destruction/defacement, underage possession of alcohol and interference with a police officer.

Bond is set at $25,000 cash and a preliminary hearing is set at the circuit court for April 27.

It is believed that Brost found the ax in a backyard in town, Ketterhagen said. He then ditched the weapon in a random pickup at the hotel parking lot.

“This is a fantastic job by Deputy Call to track him down and an excellent job by an off-duty detentions officer (Sanders),” Ketterhagen said. “They all did excellent police work.”