The V.I. Police Department’s top brass said in a video released Tuesday afternoon that the department has recovered two out of the three vehicles reported stolen from a property near the St. Croix Molasses Dock in recent months but maintained that VIPD was never the lead in the investigation.
St. Croix Chief of Police Uston Cornelius said in the video that a member of the island’s business community first reached out to the department on March 7 about the initial theft, during which a Mack dump truck, Mack tractor head and “lowboy” trailer were taken when thieves plowed through the gate on the property on which the vehicles were parked.
“The Virgin Islands Police was alerted after the primary lead agency, which was Port Authority, taking the report,” he said. “The Virgin Islands Police Department continued to follow up leads, and we were not fruitful at the time.”
On Sunday, Cornelius said, the business owner called VIPD to report another vehicle theft.
“She gave me a proper piece of her mind in relation to, again, her business being burglarized,” he said. “I listened to her — I couldn’t say not one word to her. All I could do is just take all she was dishing to me. After she was completed, myself and the deputy, we came down to the Frederiksted station and we started to put some things in place.”
St. Croix Deputy Chief of Police Naomi Joseph said that as a result of those efforts, law enforcement was able to find two of the stolen trucks in the Orange Grove area. The lowboy was found by the side of the road in La Reine.
“So we got three of the pieces,” she said. “We have one more truck outstanding, and we got a call from the business owner telling us that the vehicle is in the same area that we found it, but we found it first. I ain’t taking away the thunder from my men, because they were working diligently, looking for her equipment, and they were able to find it just before she told us where her intel led us.”
Joseph repeated assertions made to the Source and other media outlets Monday that the matter was the responsibility of the V.I. Port Authority’s law enforcement arm to begin with. Asked about the thefts Monday, a VIPA spokesperson told the Source that the semiautonomous agency had nothing to do with the investigation.
“Of course, we will assist in any way possible, but we don’t have any direct involvement with the incident,” she said.
Joseph said the remaining vehicle is a green Freightliner, “and I think we’re not far in resolving that particular piece of machinery, and then that would be it in terms of this case.”
St. Croix Source
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