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Sandra Yi ReportingA suspected high school burglar is captured overnight. Police say the man spent hours inside Cottonwood High School, stealing whatever he could get his hands on.
Police found the suspect and his dog warming up in one of the school's cars. They say, earlier he was inside the school, stealing anything he thought was of value, from a garbage disposal and paper towels to a gallon of milk.
Chet Barber: "This was very weird. I thought it was going to be nothing more than a suspicious person which is very common around the schools at night."
What started out as a routine check of the school turned into something more serious when Barber saw Jerry Richards sitting in a car with his dog. The car belonged to the school.
Chet Barber: "And so I approached him and began to ask him what he was doing and why he was there, and he proceeded to tell me he was walking his dog."
But it was 4:00 in the morning and Barber didn't buy it. More questions led Richards to make a confession.
Chet Barber: "As I continued to question him, he confessed more and more, and told me he was inside the school burglarizing it."
Among the items Richards allegedly stole and stuffed into a shopping cart, an officer found nearby, everything from electronics, to Lysol and board games. Richards told Police, he took them from the school's Home Economics department.
Chet Barber: "It looked like it had been gone through. The drawers were open, the cupboards were open. He'd gone through everything that he could find. We found a few odds and ends things laying in the hallway that he probably dropped on his way out."
Police say Richards broke in last night by climbing a pole in the back of the school. He then squeezed into an air vent.
Chet Barber: "The obvious damage was a hole in the roof where he broke through the ceiling tiles to get into the school."
Police say he waited in the school for about five hours, trying to get the courage to commit his crime. Officers say Richards wanted to pay off his cocaine dealer.
Chet Barber: "He was very scared. He was unsure, didn't seem like he knew what he was doing."
Richards is now in the Salt Lake County Jail.
