Nearly $40,000 in supplies stolen from roofer recovered at Midvale home

SANDY — A major theft operation in Sandy resulted in nearly $40,000 worth of construction material gone overnight.

But there is a good ending to this story, thanks to some very quick police work.

Tuesday morning Nick Jex, with Artistic Roofing out of Ogden, had the shock of his life when his crew showed up at their job site in Sandy at about 1000 South and 300 West. The 19,000 pounds of roofing material stored there was all gone, it vanished overnight.

"My heart hit my stomach," Jex said. He immediately called Sandy police.

Detectives quickly went to work. Looking at tire marks, footprints and going business to business seeing what was captured on surveillance cameras.

Fortunately, they found video taken from cameras at the 4Life Research company just next door.

The video obtained by KSL-TV shows four different camera angles of a pickup truck slowly driving by pulling a trailer. With help from 4Life Research, detectives managed to zoom in on the video and capture a still frame of the license plate number. That led them to a house in Midvale. When they pulled up, it was clear it was the right place.

"When they showed up, he had a trailer full of stuff in the driveway, and they opened up the garage there was all the rest of it," Jex said.

Police said the video was the key to finding the suspect, a man in his 60s. They suspect he was going to sell it.

"There are so many cameras that are out there these days. It's really nice to have these businesses invest a little bit of money to protect their business," said Sgt. Greg Moffitt, with Sandy Police Department.

Jex was on the roof with his workers when he got the call from the police that all his roofing material had been found. It had taken just two hours.

"Everybody was like 'What they found it? Already?'" Jex said. "I was so excited. I called my boss. I called the owner of the company."

Losing $40,000 in roofing material would have been a devastating blow, Jex said. "It was a big win to have it solved and have it solved quickly," he added. "Especially this time of the year. That's people's paychecks for holiday seasons, that's people's bonus if they get bonuses."

For police, it's the kind of ending they hope for in cases.

"It's super gratifying! That's why we all get into the police work to get those type of cases and to see the gratification on these victims," Moffitt said.

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