TONOPAH, AZ — Devin Plank walked out of work from his job at Dollar General to find the 4x4 he drives every day was stolen right from the parking lot.
"Extremely frustrating," Plank said.
He filed a report with the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office and posted about the stolen quad in a Tonopah community Facebook group asking for help.
"They ended up finding it pushed into some bushes down the street," Plank said.
Community members say Plank's stolen ATV is just one of many incidents involving property crime and robberies in Tonopah Valley.
“We’re seeing a lot of theft rings," Keri Miller, a long-time resident of Tonopah, said.
The community's Facebook page is full of people reporting stolen items and asking for help.
"Someone said they saw a white flatbed near Tonopah so I wanted to post here as well," one woman wrote.
"This stolen truck showed up in the Delaney wash and from what the sheriff’s department said it belongs to a dairy farmer in Arlington," another man said.
There are also posts thanking community members for helping them find their stolen property.
"To everyone that helped with recovering my truck I really appreciate you all taking time to help," one man said.
Miller says it wasn't like this before, but says theft in Tonopah has spiked since the pandemic. She also says they've been seeing more homeless encampments since cities in the Valley have been cracking down on homelessness.
Encampments are popping up around town, and she says this is often where their stolen items end up getting found.
She says the most frustrating part is the community feels like they have to be the ones to recover what was stolen and aren't getting enough support from law enforcement.
"We now need the help of MCSO, but we’re not receiving it," Miller said.
Sergeant Joaquin Enriquez with MCSO says they are aware of the community’s concerns, as well as some of the encampments locals are concerned about.
“We believe we have identified some of the problematic areas responsible for the spike in property crime," Enriquez said.
He says the investigative work takes time to complete, and that MCSO is being stretched thin in rural areas, struggling to keep up with an increase in service calls.
“Deputies are responding to all of these other calls, it’s almost like they’re tending to one issue then there is another issue going on," Enriquez said.
He says they look into all reports of property crime and do investigative work, but sometimes they can't respond to those calls immediately because they're already at higher-priority issues like crashes or shootings.
"We have the calls where a deputy is en route for a stolen ATV at a dollar store, then they have to divert to a rollover crash, then all of a sudden they have to divert to a serious rollover accident," Enriquez said. "The criminal element knows this, but that's where our job comes in, and we try and implement new tactics to have them arrested."
Miller says she hopes something can change from the law enforcement side before it is too late.
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“I’m really afraid someone is going to take things into their own hands, and someone is going to get hurt," Miller said.
MCSO says this is also a concern for their office, and need the community’s cooperation in reporting all crimes to help end the theft spike.
“We’re dedicating extra resources, investigative resources, deputies, to see if we can’t rectify this issue," Enriquez said.
You can provide tips anonymously to MCSO at 876-TIPS.
