By RAELYNN RICARTE
News staff writer
June 6, 2007

Three citizens of Cascade Locks caught a stranger breaking into a vehicle on Friday — and detained him until deputies arrived.

The female accomplice of the suspect was located nearby by law enforcement officials. She was also taken into custody after being found with stolen property.

Lodged in NORCOR on June 1 were Christopher Scott Bailey, 31, and Tracy Joan Pittman, 20, both of Portland. She has been charged with theft and he with parole violations, unauthorized entry into a motor vehicle and possession of burglar tools.

Hood River County Sheriff’s Deputies Matt English and Marc Smith have obtained evidence that could tie the couple to a series of car prowls in Multnomah and Clackamas counties.

According to reports, the three local residents saw Bailey rummaging through a vehicle along WaNaPa Street shortly after 8 p.m. The car belonged to one of the men and they all rushed outside to confront the intruder, who had used a screwdriver to pry open the driver’s side window and was riffling through the glove box.

When Bailey allegedly attempted to flee, the trio chased after and then tackled him. They held him on the ground until English and Smith arrived.

Upon questioning, Bailey reportedly told Smith, “I see how it is; you’re going to take the word of the good ol’ boys.”

He then claimed to have mistaken the vehicle for an identical one owned by the friend who had brought him into town. He said the screwdrivers had been used for entry to avoid breaking a window. He alleged to have been looking for the cell phone kept in the glove box so that he could track down that friend.

Bailey reportedly told Smith that he was carrying the tools in the first place because the vehicle had an engine problem that he had been working on.

After the suspect was taken into custody, English observed a very distraught Pittman standing along the city’s main street. She told him that the cause of her distress was the arrest of Bailey, her fiancée. Although she also reportedly claimed to have been dropped off by a friend in town, she gave an entirely different description of his vehicle.

She then told English that they had traveled into the Columbia Gorge to look at the many waterfalls. She agreed to let the deputy search the plastic bag that she was carrying.

Inside, English found sunglasses, several pieces of jewelry, the key to a vehicle, and three cell phones. Pittman allegedly told him that the phones all belonged to her, although she could not recall the numbers.

English then called an entry on one phone labeled as “mommy” and Pittman’s story began to unravel. The woman who answered the phone told the deputy that it had been stolen from her son’s car while he was fishing near Estacada that morning.

The Clackamas County man was then contacted and informed English that the window had been broken out of his vehicle. He described the phone and said the suspect(s) had changed the voicemail message immediately after taking it.