OMAHA -- Officers from 10 agencies were three days into a stolen property investigation Thursday that an Iowa sheriff said speaks volumes about mutual aid agreements.
"If we had to work on this alone, a small department like ours would have been absolutely overwhelmed," Mills County Sheriff Mack Taylor said.
Officers from southwest Iowa and Nebraska spent the day slogging through a home near Pacific Junction that was filled with so many suspected stolen goods it took about 40 officers to tackle it all.
An arrest warrant had not been issued for the homeowner, who is suspected of stealing the items, which included things like unassembled sinks and all-terrain vehicles.
Taylor said he believes more than one person was involved.
"There about had to be. Some of the stuff, just the sheer size and weight, required someone to help load it," Taylor said.
Those who suspect their stolen property might have been kept at the Pacific Junction home should contact the agency to which they reported the theft, Taylor said, not the Mills County Sheriff's Office.
The other agencies taking part in the investigation:
Omaha Police Department, Pottawattamie County Sheriff's Office, Iowa State Patrol, Council Bluffs Police Department, Iowa Department of Transportation, the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Army National Guard and Mills County Emergency Management Agency.
Contact the writer: 444-1310, elizabeth.ahlin@owh.com.