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SALT LAKE CITY -- Two men were arrested Aug. 11 while trying to steal high-end copper sinks at Mountain Land Design. That night, after seeing a story on ksl.com about the burglary, a second business owner showed KSL video of what appears to be the men stealing from them.
Now, there is more evidence linking these men to crimes at two additional businesses. The president of ProLink IT Solutions got a call from his wife Thursday morning telling him to check out the Mountain Land Design burglary story on ksl.com.
That's when he realized the two men arrested for the crime appear to be the same two men who targeted his business, and also trashed his neighbor's.
Mitch Johnson gave KSL surveillance video from the weekend of June 18th, where a white van with two men parked outside his building and then tried to get inside his business. He says both men look identical to the men who were arrested at Mountain Land design Yesterday, Adam Morris and Mitchell Lafferty.
He said the van is even the same make and model and has the same missing paint on the back end.
Johnson said the two men weren't successful at getting into his business, but they were successful at getting into his neighbor's business Kramer Law Group, and that they spent the entire weekend trashing the place.
"It looked like they were there the whole weekend, there was burritos spread all over the floor, they trashed the place, they stole some TVs and objects. They left drug needles laying around," Johnson said.
The office manager for Kramer Law Group said that the two men who broke in caused thousands of dollars in damage, and that she too says she sees the similarities between Lafferty and Morris and the men in the surveillance video captured by her neighbors, ProLink.
Johnson said he is just happy the two are now behind bars, and will be held responsible for at least one crime. He's hopeful, however, that police can connected them to the others.
"I hope that the judicial system will be able to keep them in prison if they are found guilty. They've done enough damage to small business that if they are back out on the street they are going to continue," he said
West Jordan police are now aware of the possible connection between the two cases, and will be trying to determine if it is in fact Lafferty and Morris who trashed targeted these businesses.
Jonhnson said he is positive it was them.
