A 46-year-old Lakeside woman is behind bars and her accused accomplice remains on the run after a $50,000 trailer theft in Alpine touched off a sprawling investigation that stretched from a rural border town to a firearm recovery in a county park to a 60-mile police chase that ended in the alleyways of Pacific Beach.
San Diego County Sheriff’s Crime Suppression Team investigators, who are assigned to the Alpine Sheriff’s Station, took Lindsey Newcomb into custody at a home in Lakeside, according to the ABC 10News San Diego report on the case. Investigators say they discovered some of the stolen items during a search of that Lakeside home. Newcomb, born February 10, 1980, is suspected of possessing a stolen trailer, according to San Diego County Sheriff’s Office records.
The case began around 3:30 AM last Wednesday, when surveillance footage allegedly showed two suspects stealing an enclosed trailer that contained a Polaris RZR off-road vehicle and other items, per the ABC 10News report. The Sheriff’s Office says the total haul was worth about $50,000. Detectives allege Newcomb and Eric Leitzke, a 55-year-old man born July 5, 1971, with an extensive criminal history, stole the trailer together.
License Plate Readers Point Deputies to Boulevard
Deputies used Automated License Plate Readers to help locate the stolen vehicle, according the same report. The county Sheriff’s Office operates its ALPR network under Department Procedure Section 6.130, which governs how the automated camera system logs plates and locations to flag stolen property against law enforcement hotlists, according to the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office…