Thursday, March 28, 2024

Vehicle prowl, theft, and extortion, ends in arrest of Chelan man

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WENATCHEE - A vehicle prowl that occurred at a gas station on North Wenatchee Avenue on

Valentine’s Day resulted in an arrest on Feb. 27, 2019 for Vehicle Prowl 2nd

Degree, Theft 1st Degree, Trafficking in Stolen Property 1st Degree, and Extortion 1st

Degree. Joseph W. Meadows, 44, of Chelan was identified from surveillance camera

video at the gas station and ultimately contacted after he tried to extort money from the

victim to get his own property back later.

Wenatchee Police initially responded to a reported vehicle prowl at a gas station in the

1800 block of North Wenatchee Avenue just before 6:30 p.m. on Feb. 14, 2019.

The victim was in Wenatchee on business from New Zealand. He stopped to put gas in

his rental car and went inside to pay. While he was inside, a Dodge Challenger pulled

up to the gas pumps. A male from the Challenger entered the victim’s car and took a

backpack before leaving the gas station. The backpack contained several thousand

dollars of computer and electronic equipment related to the victim’s work.

The victim went back inside the gas station to call police. The responding Officer was

able to obtain video and still images of the suspect from several angles, but was unable

to identify him at that time. The victim returned to New Zealand without his property,

which was believed lost.

On Feb. 24, 2019, the victim received e-mail from a Gmail address that contained

Meadows’ first initial, middle name, and last name. The e-mail requested contact from

the victim regarding an urgent business matter and requested a U.S. phone number

where the victim could be reached. The initial Officer used this information to locate a

suspect in our local records management system and matched his driver’s license

photo to the video from the gas station.

Detectives coordinated with the victim in New Zealand to contact the suspect via e-mail.

The suspect accepted a local phone number belonging to a Detective as the victim’s

local contact phone number. The suspect wanted an “incentive” from the victim for the

return of the stolen property. Once they agreed to a price, they set up a meeting in

Wenatchee.

Meadows arrived at the meeting location and was arrested by Detectives. His vehicle

was seized pending a search warrant. The stolen backpack was in plain view on the

back seat of Meadows’ vehicle.

Meadows was transported to CCRJC and booked on the above charges. The initial

vehicle prowl was an opportunistic theft of an unattended bag from an unlocked car at

the gas pumps. This is an uncommon occurrence in our area. Most vehicle prowls

occur with vehicles left unattended and unlocked for hours. Even less common was the

attempt to extort the victim to get their property back. This case was a great example of

cooperation with a victim, even from across the entire Pacific Ocean, to recover his

property and make an arrest.

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