BOISE-- A wanted fugitive was apprehended by a Boise Police SWAT team as he browsed at a yard sale Monday evening.
"Every day kind of a guy, all-American boy," said Flo Martinez, who runs the Neighborhood Angel yard sale and interacted with Wheeler. "He was okay and I would never have guessed that he was wanted."
The team descended on 39-year-old Troy Thomas Wheeler of Meridian near the intersection of Overland Road and Merrill Street at about 7 p.m. A woman standing near him was also handcuffed, but was released after officers determined the two were not together.
"All of a sudden the SWAT team came in and arrested him and they told me he was a really bad guy and got all my customers out of the way and my kids, because I'm a single mom of four kids and it scared the heck out of us," said Martinez.
Wheeler, who was paroled on a drug conviction less than a year ago, is a suspect in "a major narcotics investigation," police spokeswoman Lynn Hightower wrote in an email. She said the SWAT team was called in because Wheeler was known to be heavily armed and the arrest was high-risk. It was not immediately clear how police knew the suspect's location.
Martinez praised the performance of Boise Police.
"Everybody here thought it was great because when they came in and swarmed in like that, he was the target and then there were extras to make sure the people that were here got out of the way," she said. "They did great."
Others have also been arrested in connection with the narcotics investigation, and warrants are being issued for still more people. The names of the other suspects have not been released.
Wheeler was booked into the Ada County Jail early Tuesday morning, where he is being held on a parole violation and a extradition waiver. Hightower said more charges are pending against Wheeler and the other suspects.
