Man breaks into Reardan basement, leaves wallet

REARDAN – A man who was arrested for being involved in a drunk driving crash north of Reardan on Aug. 15 is now being charged for breaking into a home near Reardan the same day.

Paul Pozdeev, 52, was arrested on Aug. 15 around 9:30pm after being involved in a drunk driving collision. Just a bit earlier in the evening, police reports say he was breaking into the basement of a home on Cottonwood street in Reardan.

According to the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office police report, Megan Kamstra heard strange noises in her basement and called her boyfriend, who was harvesting, to report the noises. The boyfriend told Kamstra it was an old house and strange noises were not unusual. However, the next morning the couple found that the storm cellar door to their basement wsa ajar and a baseball cap and a wallet were laying on the floor. They found that the hot water tank had been drained and the pipe had been broken off the wall.

Inside the wallet was an Oregon driver’s license with Pozdeev’s information, as well as his bank and health card.

A follow up by police showed that Pozdeev had been booked into the county jail an hour and a half after Kamstra had heard strange noises in her basement.

Pozdeev is being charged with one count of residential burglary.