A series of vehicle thefts have occurred in the apartment parkings lots of Phase 3, 4, 5 and 6. Campus Police are working with Oklahoma City Police and Edmond Police to apprehend the suspect.
Criminal activity began Jan. 14 when a flatbed trailer was stolen from Phase 5. The trailer was then used in the theft of an ATM. Jan. 20, a student’s silver Kia had the black window broken into, but nothing was stolen because the car’s alarm sounded.
On the same morning, at 3:44 am, the suspect who broke the window of the Kia returned to Phase 3 and stole a gray Kia Soul.
The suspect drove the Kia Soul to a business off I-35 and then stole a white F 250 Ford pickup truck which was recovered in the parking lot of Phase 5.
“In 35 years of being a cop, I’ve never had an item stolen from one place and then recovered in the same place another item was stolen,” Campus Police Chief Greg Giltner said. “We were able to see the suspect drive the student’s Kia off campus. When we got to the business, they let us look at the security camera there, and we saw our student’s Kia driving on to their property. The suspect then got out a crowbar and stole the pick up and then that pickup ended up in Phase Five.”
A few days later, the suspect returned to take another vehicle from campus.
“On Jan. 30 at 5:43 in the morning, another white pickup parked just south of Phase Six in the McDonald’s parking lot,” Giltner said, “They cut the bike chain off of a dirt bike and walked it through the pedestrian fence there and stole it.”
Police have recovered and returned the flatbed trailer, the Kia Soul and the white pickup found in Phase Five, but the motorbike has yet to be discovered.
The suspect has been identified as convicted felon Zach Peterson. He is a white male, 6’ 2” and weighs 220 lbs. Oklahoma City Police are tracking his vehicle and have a warrant for his arrest.
“He’s a convicted felon. He’s not a nice guy. He’s never been a threat to anybody. He’s never confronted anybody on campus. He was here when everybody’s asleep. Once he gets picked up, he will go to jail for a long time because he’s violated his probation. We should get rid of that problem very soon,” Giltner said.
Police have identified a residence Peterson has ties to.
“We know he frequents a house one block north of campus. His ex lives up there, but that’s where we have seen several of the vehicles that have been on campus parked at that residence,” Giltner said. “He’s not associated with campus. His ex-wife is not associated with campus. The people that live at the house have no association with campus. We’re just close to the house. We’re an easy target because we’re an open campus.”
Police suspect the ploy Peterson uses to come on campus in the wee hours of the morning is chasing after dogs who got out of the house.
“Last night, we had a couple of dogs on campus we felt like came from that house. We feel like their excuse to be on our campus at three o’clock in the morning is to retrieve their dogs,” Giltner said. “Our officer intercepted the dogs last night and took them back before they ever got on campus.”
Campus Police are increasing their surveillance in the areas of Phase 3, 4, 5 and 6 apartments.
“I have two officers on shift. I have one pretty much stationary in that area. We have a big monitor on the wall and we can monitor all the parking lots. If the officers happen to be in the office working on paperwork or talking to somebody, they can still look at the monitors, and we have them specifically on that area at night,” Giltner said. “The only time he’s on campus is late, late, late at night or early in the morning. We have extra patrol on that side of campus, and we’re watching it on camera.”
Giltner described what Campus Police has witnessed.
“We’ve never been able to catch him on campus because it’s like he watches our cars and knows when we’re patrolling. My officer called me at one or two o’clock this morning and said there was a white pickup matching the one that stole the dirt bike. It was driving at a high rate of speed down the road and when he jumped in behind it they turned off their lights, so we believe it was him. But I have a no pursuit policy,” Giltner said.
Giltner is joining his officers to watch campus at night.
“I’ll be on campus the next three nights. I’m staying up here till eight o’clock in the morning. I have two officers here, one of them is patrolling that side of the campus, so we’re just keeping an extra extra eye out,” Giltner said.
This story is still developing and The Talon will provide updates.
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