Northport man sentenced on three cases

Benny Lopez Jr. has now been sentenced on three open larceny cases.  Judge Thomas Power sentenced him Monday to 10 months in jail for Larceny in a Building and to 97 days for Breaking and Entering.  He had previously been sentenced in District Court to 1 year in jail for Attempted Larceny in a Building.  All sentences will be served concurrently (at the same time).

Lopez, 29, pleaded guilty to stealing jewelry from a family member of the mother of his children.  He admitted to the theft to a Leelanau County Sheriff's deputy after the officer obtained surveillance video and pawn transaction reports showing Lopez selling the stolen jewelry.  The theft occurred in August 2012 and he said he did so to support a pain pill addiction.

He also pleaded guilty to breaking into his former employer, S & J Landscaping in November 2012.  He stole scrap metal and sold it to a Grand Traverse County scrap yard.  The transaction was captured on video surveillance and his photo identification was on the transaction receipt.  Lopez admitted to the theft when questioned by a deputy.

Lopez also confessed to stealing scrap metal from Cook Enterprises in Northport in November 2012.  He later pleaded guilty to Larceny in a Building.  Lopez confessed to stealing the metal and selling it along with the stolen scrap from S & J  Landscaping.

Leelanau County deputy Steve Bailey, who is assigned to Leelanau Township, investigated all three cases and obtained confessions to the crimes.  Restitution was ordered in all cases.

Technology and persistent victim help get stolen iPhone back

Leelanau County Sheriff's deputies helped the Michigan State University Police and a 21 year-old East Lansing woman locate and retrieve a stolen iPhone 5.  The victim called the Leelanau County Sheriff's Office Sunday to report that her phone had been stolen on Friday May 3 out of a dorm room on the MSU campus.  She reported the incident to MSU police and began to check for her phone location using an Apple phone location application.  She told a deputy that her phone had been shut off but was turned on for short periods of time.  When it was turned on, it showed a Jacobson Road address in Suttons Bay Township.

MSU housing was contacted and records showed that a 19 year-old female student with the same Jacobson Road address lived across the hall from the dorm room where the phone was stolen.  Deputies contacted the student at her family's Suttons Bay Township home and questioned her about the stolen phone.  She admitted to stealing the phone, retrieved it from her purse and turned it over to a deputy.  She said she was unable to gain access to the phone because it was password protected but had intended to convert it to her own use.

Further investigation by Leelanau deputies discovered that the suspect had posted "Anyone in LC (Leelanau County) that can jailbreak an iPhone?" on her Facebook page on Saturday May 4.

The report will be submitted to both the Leelanau County Prosecuting Attorney's office for Possession of Stolen Property as well as the Ingham County Prosecutor for Larceny in a Building.  Arrangements are being made to return the phone to the victim in East Lansing.  The suspect remains free pending a decision by both prosecutor's offices.