Bend Police arrested a man for driving under the influence of methamphetamine after tracking him for allegedly stealing a package from someone’s porch Friday morning.
According to police, a Bend resident had received an alert on their cell phone that motion had been detected on their front porch at 7:45am. When they checked the app on their phone, they saw a suspect walk up to their porch and steal a package that had been delivered. The package contained a blanket worth $150.
The surveillance video also showed the suspect getting into a Suzuki Aeiro car and driving away. The investigating officer shared this information with other officers at the Bend Police Department, one of which recognized the vehicle based on a recent traffic complaint they had received and provided the license plate to the investigating officer. The officer then learned that the vehicle was registered to Bradon Pennington, 24, from Bend, and confirmed he was the person shown on the surveillance video. Officers attempted to contact Pennington at his residence without success.
About 9:00 a.m., officers saw Pennington’s vehicle parked in the street in front of his house and conducted surveillance while one officer applied for a search warrant to search Pennington’s residence for evidence of the crime of Theft II. During this time, officers observed Pennington get into his car and start to drive away and they conducted a traffic stop.
After Pennington was stopped, officers developed probable cause to believe Pennington was under the influence of methamphetamine and they conducted a DUII investigation.
While the DUII investigation was underway, the search warrant was approved by a Deschutes County Circuit Court Judge and officers searched Pennington’s residence. During the execution of the search warrant, officers were able to recover the stolen blanket and other evidence from the theft of the package.
Pennington was arrested (citation in lieu of custody) for Theft II for the theft of the package, and DUII (Drugs) and Driving While Suspended – Violation as a result of the DUII investigation.
