Rash of crime spotlights meth
Criminal activity on the rise in county’s rural areas

The usually idyllic country lifestyle in La Plata County was marred recently by a crime spree targeting rural areas.  Law enforcement officials believe the crimes were committed by four individuals – two of them minors – who were high on methamphetamine and crack. Meth use is a growing factor in crime throughout the county as well as the nation./Photo by Todd Newcomer.

by Lindsay Nelson

Across La Plata County, from the Florida Mesa to County Road 250, people are locking their doors and leaving the lights on at night. A series of vehicular break-ins that occurred across a broad swath of mostly rural residential areas in January has focused attention on the reality of criminal activity in this once-quiet area. The culprit, many believe, is methamphetamine.

At least 33 cars were burglarized over three nights in mid-January in different areas of the county – including County Road 214, Highway 172, Durango West and County Road 250 – and within Durango city limits. The alleged perpetrators of the crime spree admitted to the thefts, an activity they referred to as “car hopping,” said La Plata County Sheriff’s Office Investigator Dan Patterson. The four – Chad Kesselhuth, Ted Dobson, a 14-year-old boy and a 16-year-old girl – spent three nights driving around the county at random, stealing anything they could find in unlocked vehicles, including prescription and illegal drugs. The individuals took photos of themselves smoking either crack or methamphetamine, Patterson said, and were ingesting any sort of drug they found.

“They were motivated mostly by boredom and money,” Patterson said. “They wanted to get whatever money they could, and take whatever drugs they found.”

The suspects also stole three firearms, one of which was discovered by police at the motel room where the four were staying; two more were found hidden in tall grass at Pastorius Reservoir south of Elmore’s Corner, where authorities say they could have been found by children or used in a more serious crime.

La Plata County Sheriff’s Office Spokesman Lt. Dan Bender noted that the rash of vehicle thefts is not indicative of a crime wave. However, the dangers of drug-related crime are increasingly hitting home here.

“There is no reason for people to panic, but we all need to recognize that even though we don’t live in a metropolitan area, we are still affected by a number of crimes,” Bender said. “The increase in crime has kept pace with the growth in population and also with methamphetamine traffic. A lot of the crimes we see occurring are directly tied to drugs.”

He encouraged rural residents to be on the lookout for suspicious activity and to lock their homes and vehicles, paying particular attention to securing their firearms.

Scot Trinklein learned that lesson the hard way. Trinklein, a 30-year resident of La Plata County, came home one afternoon in December 2004 to discover a strange vehicle on his property near Oxford. Moments later, as he turned the corner toward his own back door, he was forced to the ground by a masked burglar using Trinklein’s handgun. The man was later identified as Jared Folsom, who authorities called a “career criminal” who used and sold cocaine and marijuana and perpetrated a host of thefts and other felonies. Folsom was sentenced to 20 years in prison in September 2005.

Trinklein says not only was his life threatened and property taken from him during the incident, but he has lost his sense of safety.

“My whole life, I’ve never had to lock my doors until this,” he said. “I felt safer living in the jungles of South America than I do in La Plata County now.

“I sure learned a heck of a lot more about meth and what it does to people since this thing,” Trinklein added. “I think people probably should be more educated about the signs of the use and manufacture of meth – people aren’t aware of just how widespread it is and what it looks like. One taste can ruin your life and the lives of other people.”

There is a symbiotic relationship between drug use and a host of other crimes, Bender said. “The problem with drugs is not just a drug problem: It’s a domestic violence problem, a burglary problem, an assault problem, a traffic accident problem … It is a problem that is not unique to our area, but it is one that certainly has an affect on all other classes of crimes here.” When people say drugs only hurt the user, Bender said he’d remind them that use of drugs such as methamphetamine drive people to do hurtful and criminal things to others, and that affects the community as a whole.

To address the growing meth problem in La Plata County, there is the ongoing work of the Southwest Drug Task Force, an agency charged specifically with investigating and making arrests in drug-related activities in the area. Bender said that work directly assists the Sheriff’s Office in keeping a handle on the crime rate. “If we attack it at its source, that helps us keep those numbers (of drug-related crimes) from skyrocketing,” Bender said.

Crime statistics from the Sheriff’s Office indicate no significant increase in crimes such as theft, assault and burglary in the past year, although the number of assaults has risen dramatically since 1996. Burglary and weapons violations peaked in 1998, but have leveled off in the past three years.

County Commissioner Wally White said the Board of County Commissioners has not discussed the meth issue specifically but is aware of the increasing problem of methamphetamine use and its impact on the community.

“Our jail is 85 percent populated with people who are there for reasons either directly or indirectly related to meth usage,” he said. “We are struggling with the problem … it is an incredibly complicated situation, more than anyone has ever anticipated in terms of drug use. No other drug has caused these kinds of broad-cased problems.” White said there are a lot of people looking at the issue in both the city and county – “it’s not being swept under the rug … but no one has come up with a solution.”

White, who lives in the Grandview area, said he is more cautious in securing his rural home than he has been in his 20-odd years here. “I don’t like locking my door, but you just never know when something like this might happen.”

As more people move into the area – La Plata County’s population has risen roughly 40 percent since 1990, to nearly 50,000 – more of the world’s problems will come with them, Bender said.

“People who move here are quite often trying to get away from problems, but they sometimes bring those problems with them,” he said. “Although it appears that this is Shangri-La (and sometimes it is), we are not immune to the crimes that plague us as people.”