May 14, 2020 – Village of Richfield, WI – Washington County Sheriff’s recovered a significant number of stolen firearms during the execution of a residential search warrant late Tuesday night in the Village of Richfield. The search warrant was the culmination of a several-month burglary investigation conducted by sheriff’s investigators.
A 41-year-old Village of Richfield man and his 25-year-old girlfriend were taken into custody on Tuesday after they left their residence. At that point, a search warrant was served on the residence.
In total, 20 firearms were seized, including 10 that had been taken from a residential burglary in the Village of Richfield. The other 10 were seized in conjunction with a narcotics investigation.
Authorities also seized illegal drugs, stolen jewelry, and a John Deere Tractor that had been taken in another burglary from Portage County. A 37-year-old former roommate of the two other suspects was also charged in connection with these crimes. All three suspects were arrested on multiple felonies and will now face charges in Washington County Circuit Court.
In this case, we are grateful to be able to return a large number of these stolen firearms to their lawful owners. This was made possible by responsible gun owners keeping accurate records of their firearms. This illustrates the importance of maintaining good personal records of not only firearms but other personal articles.
Washington County Sheriff Martin Schulteis said, “This case is notable on multiple levels, first we were able to take a significant amount of firepower out of the hands of dangerous criminals, equally important we will be able to return that property back to the victims that these criminals preyed on and make them whole again and finally the people that committed these offenses will be held accountable for their crimes against our community.”
