Missoula Police Busy Chasing Burglars and Robbers Over the Weekend
Missoula police were very busy on Saturday trying to track down two burglary suspects and a robber. According to Missoula Police Public Information Officer Travis Welsh, the first burglary occurred around 5:30 A.M when employees at a business on Front Street said they had difficulty accessing a room in the building. Police say the room was apparently blocked by a man name Cole Andrew Luza
"According to employees, [Luza] had been discovered in the basement in an employee-only room where he had attempted to keep the actual employees from entering until they were able to force the door. They found him in the room itself and they could see that he had moved some things around in the room as if he had been searching."
Then at 10:30 police were called to another burglary, at an auto dealership on old Highway 93 South.
"It was reported that employees had discovered what appeared to be forced entry into the business, and they did in fact notice that some things were missing from vehicles and other items that were kept in the business," Welsh said. "The suspect was identified using surveillance video. He is identified as 40-year old Aragorn Jake Berger.
Then, just before 7:00 that evening, a call came in from a business on North Reserve where a female store clerk claimed that a man had just committed a robbery.
"The employee did not report that the suspect had produced a weapon, she did not see a weapon, however she did turn over an undisclosed amount of cash to the male who then left," Welsh said. "He was later apprehended, he had gone to a nearby business and was captured on surveillance video and matched the description of the original complainant."
Police identified the robbery suspect as 40-year-old Steven Holland Junior, who was taken into custody early Sunday morning.