NAMPA -- Four people have been arrested after police say they found them cutting apart a trailer stolen from Skyview High days earlier.
Other stolen property, some of it mangled and destroyed, was also recovered from the property in the 400 block of Greenhurst Road where officers served a search warrant Thursday.
Thirty-six-year-old Katherine Martin, 24-year-old Travis Wilson, 25-year-old Alexander White and 37-year-old Robert Crofutt are all facing charges.
The trailer was stolen from a locked, fenced area on the grounds of Skyview High on Monday. Police say the thieves cut through the lock and loaded tools and other equipment into the 16-foot enclosed trailer before driving off with it.
After a tip led investigators to the West Greenhurst Road home, police say, officers caught the suspects in the act when they checked inside a shop building behind the home.
Four arrested after Skyview trailer theft
"People were in the process of cutting and destroying the property at the time the search warrant was being obtained and served," said Lt. Eric Skoglund. "It was shocking to see the effort being made to destroy the valuable equipment that was only days before such an important asset to our schools and local businesses."
The stolen trailer had been cut into pieces and reduced to a "mangled flatbed," police say. A mascot tricycle taken from the school had also been taken apart and damaged.
Police also found a white F-350 flatbed pickup stolen from Roaring Springs, which had been spray-painted black. The truck's interior had been destroyed, and its engine was ruined.
It's unclear why the suspects were destroying the property they stole, police said.
Investigators also found other property during the search that may be linked to other reported thefts in the Nampa area.
"This property costs our citizens and local business thousands of dollars to acquire. It's shameful that someone would want to take these items and just destroy them," Skoglund said.
Martin and Wilson were each arrested for with grand theft and two outstanding warrants, while White was taken into custody on five outstanding warrants and Crofutt on one warrant.
All four are currently held in the Canyon County Jail.
