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Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Suspect believed to also be connected to theft of Forrest Rief's truck, Ricky Mart break-in
REARDAN—A suspect has been identified in the theft of an ATM from SpeedTrap Tap House that occurred this summer. Christopher D. Holverson of Medical Lake has been accused of first-degree malicious mischief, first, second and third-degree theft and second-degree burglary by the Police Department, with a police report forwarded to the Lincoln County Prosecutor’s Office for review and charging.
According to records, SpeedTrap owner Tim Hanni arrived at the tap house in the early morning of June 21 to find out that the door glass to the west entrance was broken, and someone had stolen the ATM from the bar and three glasses of whiskey from the storeroom.
The ATM, which was owned by Cory Ehrgott, contained over $5,000 in cash. The ATM itself was valued at $4,000, according to police records.
As Reardan police chief Andy Manke drove through Davenport en route to the scene, he noticed the Ricky Mart on the corner of Morgan and 12th Streets had been broken into. Earlier that night, Forrest Rief of Davenport had his pickup truck stolen from his garage, according to records.
A portion of a latex glove was found at the scene of the SpeedTrap break-in and transported to the Washington State Patrol crime lab in Cheney for DNA analysis June 29. That day, Rief’s pickup truck was found with the ATM in its bed on Espanola Road west of Medical Lake, according to records. The cash was gone from the ATM.
The truck is currently in custody of the Spokane County Sheriff’s Department for processing, according to police records.
Spokane County Property Crimes Detective David Morris named Holverson and Richard P. Hoffman, whom he said were prolific ATM thieves living in the Medical Lake area, as two suspects.
Around this time, another ATM was stolen from Trader’s Express in Davenport and recovered at Silver Lake in Medical Lake, according to records.
Three months later, Sept. 27, the DNA analysis provided a positive match for Holverson, who had been arrested Aug. 22 in Spokane County for possession of a stolen vehicle and possession of a firearm, according to records.
The prosecutor’s office had decided to charge Holverson on the recommended counts as of Wednesday, Oct. 6.
Drew Lawson is the editor of the Davenport Times. He is a graduate of Eastern Washington University.
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