By Stephen Cowles
The Tidewater News

Items taken from area residential burglaries this past October have been recovered, according to Lisa Martin, spokeswoman for the Isle of Wight County Sheriff’s Office. Working with the department were the Suffolk Police and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

The first known incident in the county was on Oct. 10, when the IW Sheriff’s Office got a call about a burglary in the 12000 block of White House Road. Four days later, the department responded to two other calls, one in the 12000 block of Comet Road and the other in the 11000 block of Stallings Creek Road.

Firearms and electronics were among the objects taken from those three incidents, as well as items recovered from burglaries in five other jurisdictions: Surry, Suffolk, Hampton, Smithfield and Gates, N.C.

“We recovered property from eight burglaries,” Lt. Tommy Potter said. He’s an investigator for the IW Sheriff’s Office. “We have developed several suspects based on the property and where it was recovered. I think we’ll find out the number of cases is going to grow past the number we know now.”

He added that could be 15 to 20 cases, if not more.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms has custody of the recovered firearms for identification.

Martin said arrest warrants are pending.

“The investigation and pending arrests would not have been possible without the cooperation between federal and local law enforcement,” Martin said.

Potter added, “We sat down with Smithfield and Suffolk (police) and saw what was the common thread: That either phone lines or electric meters (were) tampered (with) to bypass alarm systems. By sharing the information, we learned burglaries weren’t limited to just Isle of Wight.”

The detective also stressed homeowners who recorded the serial numbers of their property, such as firearms, helped speed the investigation.

“What we need done is for you to write down serial numbers and put them in a safe place,” Potter said. “When property is stolen, then get the serial numbers to an officer and we’ll have a better chance of recovering it.”