BURLINGTON, Iowa – A Burlington man has been arrested in connection with a burglary in Henderson County, Illinois, where thousands of dollars in cash and valuable items were stolen. Authorities also found marijuana during his arrest.
Joshua Duane Lee Dixon, 30, was arrested by the West Burlington Police Department on April 7. He faces charges of first-degree theft (a class C felony) and possession of a controlled substance-third offense (a class D felony).
The incident unfolded on April 5, when the Henderson County Sheriff’s Office received a report of a burglary at a residence on Gray Street in Gladstone, Illinois. The victim told police that someone had crawled inside the home through a doggy door, accessed a safe, and stole approximately $50,000 in cash, two Rolex watches valued between $10,000 and $15,000, as well as additional items, including $24,000 hidden in a Cheese-It box and a lockbox containing between $35,000 and $40,000.
The victims managed to track their stolen Apple AirTag to an apartment complex on Maple Street in Burlington, Iowa. This led authorities to interview a resident who knew Dixon. The resident revealed that he, Dixon, and another man traveled to Gladstone on the night of April 5, where he acted as a lookout while Dixon and the third man broke into the home. The man described how Dixon and the other burglar used a saw to open the safe and took armloads of items, leaving behind burglary tools.
After executing search warrants at the residences of Dixon and his accomplice, no stolen items were recovered as Dixon and the other man were not home at the time. However, a breakthrough came on April 7 when detectives with the Southeast Iowa Narcotics Task Force were tipped off that Dixon was staying at a hotel in West Burlington with his girlfriend and possibly had large sums of money.
Upon executing a search warrant at Dixon’s hotel room, investigators found Dixon with over $16,000 in cash, including $1,843 in his possession, $5,080 in the freezer, and $9,184 in a purse. Additionally, 15 football jerseys, some autographed and valued in the hundreds to thousands of dollars, were discovered along with 42 grams of marijuana.
During an interview, Dixon admitted to participating in the burglary and to dividing the stolen money among the three men after they returned to Iowa. Dixon is currently being held at the Des Moines County Jail on a $15,000 bond. A preliminary hearing has been scheduled for 2 p.m. on Friday at the Des Moines County Courthouse.
