By LESLIE EIKLEBERRY
Salina Post
A report early Thursday morning of people snooping in a north-central Salina neighborhood resulted in a license plate stolen Tuesday afternoon being found.
Additional information gathered since the Tuesday incident also has helped police develop a possible suspect in the case.
Salina Police Captain Paul Forrester said this morning that a person living in the 100 block of S. Baker Street reported seeing two to three people snooping around the neighborhood at approximately 12:30 a.m. Thursday. When police arrived, they found a charcoal gray Dodge Caravan parked in an alley with its hazard lights on, the hood propped open, and the driver's door open.
The tag on the vehicle was the one reported stolen from a 2013 Dodge Grand Caravan Tuesday afternoon while the vehicle was parked at Dollar Tree, 1201 W. Crawford Street.
In that incident, a 73-year-old woman had gone into Dollar Tree, leaving her 43-year-old daughter sitting in the Grand Caravan. The daughter witnessed a Hispanic male pull in next to the vehicle in what was then described as a black Dodge Caravan. Forrester said that Caravan and the one found in the alley early this morning are one in the same.
The man removed the license plate from the Grand Caravan, got back in his Caravan, and drove to nearby Club Carwash.
In the meantime, the daughter went inside the store to tell her mother what had happened. When the women came out of the store, the man approached her with a different license plate and asked whether it belonged to her. When the older woman asked whether he had stolen her license plate, he fled. Forrester said Wednesday that the license plate the man had handed the woman was reported stolen out of Garden City.
As it turns out, the Caravan abandoned in the alley also was stolen from Garden City, Forrester said this morning.
When officers searched the Caravan, they found narcotics and drug paraphernalia, he added.
Forrester also said that information from another suspicious person incident Wednesday has helped police develop a possible suspect in the case.