Trio Of Alleged Air Conditioner Thieves Jailed In Stone County:

A trio of alleged thieves are sitting behind bars in Stone County facing charges of stealing and receiving stolen property from a vacant motel in the county.

Stone County Sheriff Richard Hill says deputies responded to a shots fired call near the Branson Bluffs Motel, off Dockhouse Lane in the early morning hours of September 29th.  While responding to the call, a deputy spotted an empty truck with air conditioners in the bed of the pickup parked not far from the motel.

Later that morning, the driver of the truck, Dylan Robert Foster, 20, of Crane, called 911 to report his vehicle had been stolen from the Cox River Access in Galena.  While investigating the stolen truck claim and the theft of the stolen air conditioners, investigators were tipped off that there was stolen property at the Fir Street home in Galena of forty three year-old  Rhonda Jean Long. 

Inside Long's residence investigators found four truckloads of household items allegedly stolen from the vacant motel. The motel has been vandalized several times according to investigators.

Long and 50-year-old Larry Gene Wilks, of Galena, have been charged charged with receiving stolen property.

Foster, the young man who reported his truck stolen, has been charged with stealing and receiving stolen property (so far there have been no charges filed against Foster for filing a false police report.) 

They are each being held in the Stone County jail on $25,000 bond.

Hill says he expects more arrests to come early next week for others involved in the alleged theft.