A treasure trove of stolen items was found after police worked with a tracking mechanism on one of the electronic devices ripped off from vehicles in the Hartford area.

The series of thefts is called “car-hopping” as a bunch of cars got raided in Hartford and possibly northwestern Sioux Falls. The big break came when one report came in Tuesday morning around 7:00 AM. Sergeant Josh Phillips of the Minnehaha County Sheriff’s Office says one victim had his iPad stolen and gave police a way to track the device.

“With that information, the victim was able to give us GPS coordinates of where the iPad was. We went to the 4100 block of North Pennsylvania Avenue in Sioux Falls, where we believed the iPad was located. We called the iPad and it rang at the residence. That’s when contact was made with three individuals.”

From there, police went inside the residence and Phillips reports the wide array of evidence.

“We located additional property there. Including numerous phones, several purses, about any type of electronic you could think of, prescription pills, credit cards, and hunting gear which would include binoculars and knives.”

Arrested were two 18-year olds and a 20-year old from Sioux Falls. They were charged with seven counts of criminal entry of a vehicle, obtaining drugs by fraud or theft, possession of a controlled substance and grand theft over $1,000. They are presumed innocent until proven guilty.

Phillips tends to think that this group has been operating this ring for a while. However, most of the property recovered on Tuesday was mainly from the Hartford area.


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