Del City Police have arrested a man, Michael Salinas, accused of stealing multiple lawn mowers from homes in close proximity to one another. The alleged thefts occurred on May 13th, with the first mower, valued at $450, taken around 12:30 p.m.
According to police, the stolen mower was quickly brought to a pawn shop located directly across the street from the police department later that afternoon. The pawn shop manager recognized the mower as resembling one reported stolen on social media and promptly took a picture of Salinas’ ID and the mower, ultimately refusing the transaction. The manager then contacted the victim, Guadalupe Baza, to inform her that her mower had been brought in.
Baza recounted that her security cameras captured Salinas entering her property and stealing the mower from her backyard. Her daughter managed to take several pictures of the van and its license plate as it departed. Baza expressed her disbelief, stating, “I always had my lawn mower out. I’ve never had an issue here, and it was just crazy that it was like in the backyard and that’s when it ended up being stolen.”
Later that same day, police received a report of another stolen lawn mower from a home three blocks away from Baza’s residence. This second mower was valued at $1,000 and was taken from the victim’s front yard. Baza lamented, “I just hate that people work so hard for the things that they got and people just go and they just take it.”
Thanks to the images shared by Baza, police were able to locate Salinas’ van using FLOCK cameras. He was arrested on May 16th and, during an interview, confessed to stealing both lawn mowers. Salinas also admitted to attempting to sell one of the stolen mowers on Facebook.
Salinas has been booked into the Oklahoma County Jail, where he faces charges including grand larceny, violation of the Oklahoma Computer Crimes Act, possession of stolen property, and petit larceny.
