HOUSTON – Houston police have arrested a woman they say was helping a man break into several Houston-area body shops. Some of the crimes were caught on camera and the man on that surveillance video is still on the run.
These truck service centers on the east side of Houston have been absolutely hammered over the last two weeks; more than $100,000 of equipment is still missing, but they now have a big lead.
Only Local 2 was there Thursday as veteran HPD investigators poured over the latest crime scene.
If you're keeping score that's now five trucking businesses burglarized in 20 days, and as this exclusive surveillance video shows, all this guy wants are high-end tools; thousands of dollars worth he pushes, pulls and drags out under the cover of darkness.
But Thursday morning, at a place called Truck Nation, the store is already on alert because these businesses have been sharing information.
Veteran Houston police detective Greg Shelton says a burglar alarm threw a monkey wrench into the latest heist.
"He actually got away, but we did catch his accomplice," said Shelton.
That accomplice who was arrested and charged with burglary is 45-year-old Alisa Anthony and she has implicated 44-year-old Christopher Glaster -- an acquaintance with a staggering arrest record who police say bungled this one big time and should be in custody soon.
"Actually he left his ID behind for us," said Shelton.
The tools are so vital to what these businesses do every day that the competitors really are working together to solve this case and it looks like they're on the right track.
Police tell us they have a good idea where those stolen tools are being sold and while they're not ready to reveal where they tell us they've already managed to recover a few of them.