A man wanted by Turlock Police for a brazen burglary where antique rifles were stolen from a Veterans of Foreign Wars Post earlier this month was arrested after being stopped for speeding in Oakdale two days later.
Oakdale Police Officer Matthew Gardette said he was working traffic enforcement near Oak Valley Hospital when he stopped a car for excessive speed on Olive Street around 3:50 p.m. on April 7. Officer Gardette said the driver of the car did not have any identification and gave a name of a subject who was on searchable probation. The passenger in the car was a parolee out of Stanislaus County.
In an attempt to identify the driver, and with the search conditions, Officer Gardette searched the car and located a concealed bottle of Oxycodone pills, a Schedule III narcotic.
After both subjects were arrested, deputies at Stanislaus County Jail discovered that the driver was Ricky Dean Beets, 32, who had just been identified as the suspect of a burglary of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 5059 in Turlock days earlier.
In the Turlock burglary, two suspects rammed the locked gate and pried open a metal door to gain entry to the VFW building on East Linwood Avenue. Once inside the two men tried to use a pickup truck to pull out a bolted-down ATM. Video surveillance footage shows the suspects returning minutes later with more tools and continuing to damage the machine to gain access.
Police state that the suspects were unable to break into the ATM and later took two World War II bolt-action rifles and bottles of alcohol. Turlock Police Detectives were able to identify Beets from the video footage and alerted area agencies.
Officer Gardette said he notified Turlock Police of the arrest and had them respond to the jail.
In addition to the Turlock burglary and narcotic possession charges, Gardette said Beets also faces felony charges of falsely impersonating someone which result in criminal charges to them.
The second suspect still has not been identified and the Turlock Police Department is still asking for the public’s help identifying him. Anyone having information regarding the other suspect are urged to call the Turlock police at (209) 668-1200.
