Two arrested in alleged theft from vending machine

Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2004 | 10:57 a.m.

Police said they chased down two men after a school district police officer saw them using a blow torch to take money out of a vending machine in East Las Vegas.

An accomplice of the two men allegedly fired a gun at the school officer and was still at large this morning.

It started about 3:30 a.m. when a Clark County School District Police officer noticed sparks flying outside a drug store at Charleston Boulevard and Sloan Avenue, police said. The officer discovered the sparks were coming from a blow torch that was being used by three men to open a vending machine, CCSD Officer spokesman Darnell Couthen said.

When the officer got out of his patrol car, one of the men pulled a small-caliber handgun and fired at the officer, Couthen said.

Metro Police were called and officers pursued the suspects for about eight minutes before catching two of them at the Budget Suites at Nellis Boulevard and Flamingo Road.

They were booked into the Clark County Detention Center on charges of burglary and evasion of police, and additional charges are pending, Couthen said. Their names were not immediately available for release.

The third suspect, believed to be the gunman, got away. Police said he is a white man in his mid-to-late 30s, about 5 feet, 9 inches tall, 200 pounds, with gray spiked hair and he answers to "James" or "Jim," Couthen said.

Police did not recover the handgun but did recover assorted tools typically used for burglaries, Couthen said.

Vending machine burglaries are "a big problem because we believe a lot of people are doing it," Metro Property Crimes Section Lt. Larry Spinosa said today. "We've had reports of 50 machine break-ins in the last five days.

In many cases, drills are being used to get into the coin boxes.

The Strip and the downtown area have been hit the hardest, police said.

Several suspects have already been arrested and are facing felony theft and burglary charges, but police say there are many more vending machine burglars still on the streets and they hope the public will help police catch them.

Anyone with information about the vending machine burglaries can call Crime Stoppers at 385-5555 or the property crimes section at 229-3573. Anyone with information on the man still wanted in connection with this morning's case can call school police at 799-0228.