NORTHEAST OHIO Stolen ice show tickets break burglary ring

Altogether, 29 communities were victimized in the burglaries.
KIRTLAND, Ohio (AP) -- After two of their six "Disney on Ice" tickets were stolen, a Northeast Ohio family attended the show under the watchful eye of police and looked askance at the fans who took the seats next to them.
Officers questioned the pair after the Cleveland show Jan. 18, and authorities say the recipients of the stolen tickets led them to three men who are now accused in about 145 burglaries in six counties.
"They [the victims] were pretty nervous when they saw them, but they knew we were right there," Amherst police Detective Dan Jasinski said on Friday.
Authorities from several law enforcement agencies announced burglary charges on Friday against Chano Boulding, 27, of Cleveland; Donald Ferguson, 34, of Alliance; and Joseph Moore, 46, of Brooklyn. The three were in the Lake County jail Saturday.
The three confessed and have cooperated, said Police Chief Daniel Llewellyn of Mentor, the hardest hit community with 23 burglaries. Online court records don't identify attorneys assigned by the Lake County public defender's office, and county Public Defender Paul LaPlante has an unlisted phone number.
There were two break-ins in October 2003, and one or two a month followed in scattered communities. The linked burglaries built steadily until there were 77 last year and 12 so far this year before the arrests earlier this month.
Method used
It took investigators a while to notice a pattern, but eventually neighboring police agencies compared notes on late afternoon break-ins through back windows and doors in wealthy neighborhoods, Llewellyn said at a news conference at Lakeland Community College.
The burglars typically swiped pillowcases from beds and stuffed them with cash and jewelry. Authorities have not tallied the total losses but say the loot was worth several hundred thousand dollars. Few items have been recovered.
The homes were targeted when homeowners would be out. A few of the Mentor break-ins coincided with high school football games.
"They had everything down to a science," Llewellyn said. "They were meticulous."
Several agencies cooperated on the case before an apparent weakness for Tinker Bell gave them the break they needed. The ice show tickets were stolen just after Christmas from a home in Amherst.
Areas affected
The burglaries spanned 29 communities in the region, with 40 break-ins each in Cuyahoga and Lorain counties, 39 in Lake, 12 each in Medina and Summit, and two in Geauga.
Police called Moore the ringleader, and his bond was set at 100,000. Bond for Boulding and Ferguson was set at 50,000 each. Llewellyn said more arrests could come but added investigators are confident the three are the prime suspects.
Since the arrests, one of the suspects took police in the Cleveland suburb of North Royalton on a tour of burglarized homes, describing how he had cased and entered them, Detective Dave Loeding said.
At one house, the suspect told officers he had taken money in an envelope.
"Sure enough, that's what my report said," Loeding said.
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