Halloween decorations, an ice-making machine and fruit are all items stolen last week in three separate theft cases in Maricopa County.
One theft occurred on June 17. In this instance, 29-year-old Joel Michael Claus is accused of stealing an ice maker from the storage closet of an apartment complex near Greenway and Scottsdale roads.
Employees found the ice maker outside a parking garage.
Police say surveillance video reportedly shows Claus walking out of the parking garage with the $1,700 ice maker in his hands.
Claus claims he moved the ice maker to get to another item and was returning it.
Claus has been charged with burglary.
In the second instance, 23-year-old Eric Raul Landa is arrested in Chandler for stealing bins out of an open garage. Those bins contained Halloween decorations and other items.
The victim directed police to the porch of a first-floor apartment near Arizona Avenue and Warner Road.
The victim lives in a nearby second-floor apartment. Police searched and located the victim's stolen goods.
Police say Landa dumped other bins belonging to other residents near the dumpster.
He's been charged with burglary.
In the third case, the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office arrested 34-year-old Ricardo Daniel Sanchez in Aguila, Arizona, west of Wickenburg, on Monday.
Sanchez is accused of stealing 768 boxes of cantaloupes worth over $6,500 from an Aguila farm where he works.
Sanchez reportedly told deputies that he was offered nearly $2,000 by a man named 'Jose' to load the stolen cantaloupes onto a semi-truck.
Sanchez has been charged with theft and trafficking in stolen property.
