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COTTONWOOD HEIGHTS — Two men were arrested after a package theft was captured by a home surveillance system, police said.
The men followed UPS delivery vans and then walked up to residences to snag packages drivers left when they couldn’t make contact with anyone at the home, according to Sgt. Corbett Ford of the Cottonwood Heights Police Department. He said the department put out an internal bulletin Monday after one of the theft victims provided surveillance photos.
“That proved to be extremely beneficial,” he said. “(The photos) gave us a general description of the suspect vehicle and kind of gave a general description of one of the suspects.”
A detective spotted a vehicle matching the description of the car used during the theft — it had distinctive stickers on the back of the car — and followed it before ultimately making a traffic stop Thursday, according to Corbett. He said the driver, 37-year-old Douglas Dru Kemp, was subsequently arrested on suspicion of possession of methamphetamine and possession of stolen property.
“The driver actually had in the vehicle a package that had just recently — and I don’t know if that was within the hour or the day — been delivered to a residence in West Jordan,” Corbett said.
Kemp was also arrested on suspicion of possession of a dangerous weapon, according to Corbett. He said Kemp had a knife, in addition to a black airsoft handgun that had been altered so the orange tip appeared black.
“It looked like a real handgun,” he said. “So you have some individuals who are out doing nefarious activity and now have put into their repertoire something that would look like a handgun, that most people would not flinch at to question that it was a real weapon. We’re very concerned about that and glad we could get these guys off of the street.”
Police believe Adam Patt Anderson, 34, acted as an accomplice. He was arrested later in West Jordan, according to Corbett. He said both men have a lengthy criminal history mostly involving possession of controlled substances and theft.
Packages from the first alleged robbery were not found. Ford said investigators believe they were already pawned off.
While police did not know Friday how many porch burglaries the duo could be linked to around the valley, Ford said the problem of Christmas packages being stolen — especially this time of year when a lot of people order presents online — is not unique to either Cottonwood Heights or the two arrested men.
"I don't think that these are the first two individuals to kind of think up something like this," he said. "These are things that impact people's holidays and definitely a problem we have every year."
To avoid having holiday packages stolen, Corbett recommended requesting packages be signed for before delivery or picking them up at an alternative location. He said he has packages shipped to a mail center so he doesn’t have to worry about being home when delivery trucks arrive.
Utah state court records show Kemp has a criminal history that includes drug-related crimes over the past 10 years. He was sentenced to 20 days in jail on 2007 on a conviction of criminal mischief.
In 2010, he was convicted of attempted drug possession and received a suspended prison sentence. Also in 2007, Kemp took a plea in abeyance to felony drug possession and was later found to be "clean and compliant" during a follow-up court hearing in 2008.
In 2003, he was found guilty of an amended charge of attempted drug possession and sentenced to 30 days in jail and probation. He was sent back to jail in 2004 for nearly a year, however, after violating his probation multiple times, according to court records.
Anderson also has an extensive history of drug and theft-related crimes, including a conviction on an amended charge of attempted shoplifting in July for which he was sentenced to two weeks in jail, according to court records.
Anderson was sentenced to six months in jail in 2012 for shoplifting, according to court records. He was also sentenced to a year in jail in 2008, with credit for time served, for another shoplifting conviction; another six months in jail and ordered to undergo a drug treatment program following a conviction on a separate drug distribution charge in 2008; and received a suspended prison sentence on a third 2008 conviction of felony shoplifting, according to court records.
Anderson was also convicted of attempting to receive or transfer stolen property in 2004 for which he was sentenced to up to five years in prison.
Contributing: Tammy Kikuchi
