HEY -i know whats going on in this case. that said. jeff worked at bakers-he knew oakley worked with them & has done business with him many times! he was charged with felony burglary. BUT- he did not steal the copper. he received stolen property! (why would he go to him?) anyone know? he did not think it was stolen at the time! he was doing a favor for someone-they are laughing now! bakers is 24/7 job. how can 1 person get that much copper in 5 minutes?! copper caper-well its not been going on like a serial case. tell me if anyone seen it get stolen-you cant. many people steal there. this was to get people to come to oakley! it was called in after he got there. it was not a sting. they can not put a date/time on when it was stolen. at court judge asked who seen him steal-not 1 worker could say anything. they all had diff. times and dates. 500 puonds is hard to miss! oakley tryed to look like a hreo-hes not. 911 is for life or death,not copper & not to get free advertising!

Suffice it to say this one had a good ending but there is room for improvement on all sides.

The most important thing to remember is an informed member of society (Mr. Oakley) and the police took this criminal off of the street. If Mr. Oakley wasn't away of the theft at Baker Mfg. this crook would have probably gotten away with it.

RCSD did their job correctly. Police don't go around and 'stake out' capers based on one phone call. Had they done what was originally requested by Oakley, the charges against the thief would never hold up in court. Oakley's request alone is not PC, and an investigation would potentially violate his civil rights and guarantee his release without charges and result in a civil suit against the County. They didn't even have to show up; RCSD could have arrested him later at a different location with the eyewitnesses and evidence Oakley provided. But you Monday morning quarterbacks knew that already, right?
RCSD is hiring, I encourage all who know so much about LE to apply as well...you'll ace the exams, get the biggest gun, take a three hour lunch and run this county in no time, Starski.

Ok, I couldn't help myself and came back anyways... Redefoxx thanks!!!!!!! So well put! BTW, I work with you.

I think if DartPlayer07 is really an employee at a 911 center he/she is a poor example. Other than getting the location of the incident right away, the next most important thing for a 911 call taker/dispatcher is NOT TO ASSUME. DartPlayer07 is assuming that the 911 Center messed up this call. If he/she has the guts I would suggest they file an open records request with the Rock Co 911 Center and then find out what happened & then come back to this site & apologize to the employees & citizens that read this blog for not giving the 911 center employees the benefit of the doubt (since the gazette failed to get all of the facts in the first place). I happen to work at the 911 center & heard about this call and I know what happened & the article was not completely accurate (surprise surprise) and I am sure the 911 center administration (DAVE SLEETER & KATHREN SUKUS) have checked into this and would be totally up front with the gazette if they were to ASK what happened. Maybe the 911 center doesn't want to embarrass another agency?! From what I know from working at the center, whenever there is a problem/complaint (whether in the paper or not) Kathy & Dave always check into and if their employees messed up they will admit it and work on training or policies so the same mistake doesn't happen again. I don't think it is fair for the gazette to allow this blogging/slamming of people & not check into the whole story or print retractions when they lead the public astray..but then again it doesn't help when someone in the industry slams us too. Thank you Kathryn Sullivan for not jumping to conclusions & giving us the benefit of the doubt-you are right & DartPlayer07 is wrong. And gazette if you are reading this-I would suggest getting a copy of the tape so you can hear REALLY what happened. Bottom line is the call was handled & the suspect was caught with the help of the citizen.

tjnci- I was just going to say that!

I never said Mr Oakley was "making up a story".  I do say a job well done on his part and he did more than most citizens would bother to do.  I'm just saying that law enforcement and 911 centers get slammed by people who have no clue what goes on there - and apparently now by people who do.  Thanks for the vote of confidence in the Rock County 911 Center Dart. If you're ever in Rock County and they wind up saving your life I'm sure your tune will change. That's it, I'm done and won't be bothering to look at these threads of slander again.

Well Kathryn..how convenient, I work at one too! So tell us then, what really happen with the CT who answered the phone, and Mr. Oakley who was on the other end asking for an Officer?
I don't believe Mr. Oakley was "making up" a story to be a hero. I also know Gene and Suzanne and they are great people! They are heroes in my book for not giving up even after being denied help from the 911 Center. They did a great job at getting another criminal off the street. However, I think instead of the Sheriff's Dept getting the bum wrap, I think it fell down on Rock County's 911 Center and the CT (Call Taker)who answered the phone. Perhaps the 911 Center would like to respond??
Oh and Kathryn thank you for correcting my one vowel mistake on Mrs. Sukus. I had already corrected Dave's last name.

Gene O you did it. That story was one of the best I have read. I have known Gene and his wife for years and I can just see him doing this. Gene is a great guy and kudo's for him doing his civic duty.

Sorry Dart I have to disagree. I KNOW how 911 centers work because I work at one...

It's Dave Sleeter and Kathryn Sukus...for the record.

Ooops, Contacts at 911 are Dave Sleeter or Kathy Sukas.

MissSassyPants I know how 911 centers work. What I believe happen is Gene Oakley spoke to a Telecommunicator at the 911 center. I believe He/She probably did tell Gene that they were not able to do this. Instead of putting Gene in contact with the correct person of authority. Perhaps Dave Slater at Rock Co 911 should be interviewed as to what really happen here! Seems to me the call taker didn't do a very thorough job in initial questioning to make the correct choice in how this situation was handled. Luckily Gene is a smart man. The professional way he handled it, even after he received no help from the 911 center, gave the bad guys an arrest. Good job Gene!!

Once again, joe citizen "hero", law enforcement and 911 center "bad guys". This is lousy reporting. Somehow I don't think that this guy was told "We can't do that." In fact I can say fairly certainly that would not have been the case. How about a comment from the sheriff's dept or the 911 center? Where's that? Did Oakley say just how he contacted EVPD? Um, that would've been thru the 911 center as well as they handle all law enforcement calls - emergency and non emergency - that time of night. Maybe all the people slamming the 911 center should go take a tour and request a sit in to see how it all really works!

As far as I understand it, 911 is for emergencies only and most likely the 911 call center isn't authorized to dispatch someone for reasons other than ER's. They may also be unsure of what jurisdiction to pull those officers from in those non ER situations. State? County? Local? Another City? That's not 911 centers call. If you as a citizen had called 911 at that very same time and you or your spouse were having a heart attack, wouldn't you be a bit upset that a 911 operator was busy locating the right branch of law enforcement for a possible, but not definate property theft case? A bit of advice to everyone. List the main police department number of your city/town just below your 911 number on your ER call list next to your phone. Business and personal residences. I have called the Main Police line for business reasons and have always gotten a rapid response, depending on the severity of the situation.

He dialed 911 to see if he could get deputies in place to arrest the man.

“They said they couldn’t do that,”

Last time I checked deputies don't answer the phones at the 911 center. So who is "they" and are "they" qualified to speak on what a deputy would or wouldn't do?

Either way there is no excuse for not at least sending a deputy to the scene right away to at least positively identify the suspect before he got away, and start a preliminary investigation.

Joy M......I do not believe that it is an issue of the Sheriffs' Department "Not wanting to respond." Um here is how it works. The origional case came from Evansville. The Sheriffs' Department needed to make sure that all of the facts are straight by conferring with EVPD. This is a smart thing to do before they go and deprive someone of their freedom, don't ya think? As far as the police go, Dale B is right. catch 22 either way. If the deputies would have responded right away, someone would've gotten overtime. Sheriffs' Dept. budget goes up and people get mad because taxes go up. This was a property crime not life or death.

Hey you all, these are the same cops that were not around when you rolled through them "STOP" signs in town and also must have been on that 2hr lunch while you were speeding and changing lanes without turn signals! And i am sure you were happy about them cops than! Cops are damned if they do and damned if they don't! No, i am not a policeman but am happy someone is there most the time when i need them...

Nothing says BUSTED like "Oh my God, its a cop."

Copper stolen, reported to the police and scrap dealers.

Copper in the same quantity offered for sale to a scrap dealer.

Man is arrested for the theft of the copper.

Isn't this how it is supposed to work?

No one said they HAD to arrest the person if they showed up, only that they INVESTIGATE if this could be the missing copper. Why would it be a "cursory" investigation (definition: hastily and superficial)? Is this less important than catching speeders? I think not.

I would agree with bzabel except for one thing: this was not out of the blue and a simple hunch. This copper theft problem has been ongoing and visible. The person who was calling with this "hunch" was the owner of a recycling business who was reasonably on the lookout for questionable product. The sheriff's department could have at least ambled in to check out the circumstances and exercised caution to ensure that procedure was followed. That is the part that concerns me the most. By not wanting to respond, the department put the business owner in an untenable position: purchase product that was likely stolen, or refuse the business of that person, who would either go to another less-scrupulous recycler, or else be driven underground for a while and the thefts might still keep occurring, neither of which is a positive outcome. I do agree with whydoyouask that the department's comments should have been solicited and included or at least a notation that no comments were provided.

Firstly, congratulations to Gene Oakley for taking the initiative that he did. Terrific job!

As for the negative critcism of the Sheriff's response, you folks need to understand a little something called Probable Cause. Law Enforcement simply cannot go around arresting people based solely on 'hunches' or other suggestions of wrong doing. What you don't see on COPS is that the majority of arrests are never processed by the DA because of the methods in which the officer obtained the evidence violated the defendant's civil rights. Unfortunate? Absolutely! But that's the way the system is designed. I can certainly understand the Sherrif's hesitancy to become involved without a cursory investigation.

If you think you would do better, I encourage you to stop by your local law enforcement agency's office and ask for an application-assuming you are able to pass the criminal, psychological & background investigations and physical fitness testing. Good luck!

They were going over DNA samples with the DA........

Regardless of the sheriff's department's response, someone from the department should have been given the opportunity to comment for this story.
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If the department declined to comment, a simple sentence such as, "The sheriff's department declined to comment about this story" would have been better than nothing at all.
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When someone accuses another party of something, Responsible Journalism 101 says that the other party should get a chance to respond to those allegations. Anything less is poor, sloppy work and the paper should lose some credibility in readers' eyes.

A business owner calls and provides a tip on where a probable thief is going to deliver stolen goods and the 1st response from the Sheriff's Department is that they can't do that????? Then they have to wait until after shift change???? At least Evansville was on the ball and got them to finally respond. And where was the Sheriff and Chief Deputy? Still on their daily 2-hour lunch?

So, why didn't the Rock County sheriff's department think they could take care of this without prompting from Evansville? Because the timing was inconvenient due to an impending shift change? I think we need some explanation here from our elected official.