The following is a press released from the Fort Bragg Police Department. The information has not been proven in a court of law and any individuals described should be presumed innocent until proven guilty:
For the last several months, Holmes Lumberyard, 211 West Elm St., Fort Bragg has been plagued with numerous thefts of lumber from their yard. They took measures to identify a possible suspect. One of the measures was a surveillance camera. During one of the thefts, the suspect took one of the cameras while he was being photographed.
Homes Lumberyard employees made it their number one priority to identify the suspect. They did not expect the suspect to return to the property after all of the social media posts. However, on Friday night at approximately 9:30 pm, Holmes Lumber notified the Fort Bragg Police that a person was on the Lumberyard property. Fort Bragg Police arrived and located Ryan Ivey. Ivey was in possession of burglary tools. He was arrested for several misdemeanor violations one being violation of probation. Ivey was transported to the Mendocino County Jail. At the Jail Ivey was found to be in possession of methamphetamine.
The following morning, Saturday December 12th , Fort Bragg police dayshift officers began a follow-up of the previous night’s arrest. Ivey’s vehicle was located at a local motel near where his arrest occurred. Officers checked to see if Ivey was a registered guest, and determined he was not. Officers obtained a search warrant for his vehicle. Officers also requested assistance from the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office to locate and observe Ivey’s place of residence located on Mitchell Creek Road. In the vehicle officers found further evidence consistent with the burglary.
A short time later, both agency personnel proceeded to the Mitchell Creek property to conduct a probation search. Since the scope of the search was limited to common areas that Ivey utilizes officers obtained another search warrant to broaden the search of the property. Additional stolen property was located and seized.
Lumber from the Holmes thefts was observed as well as numerous reported stolen items from several other victims in the county jurisdiction as well as the city. Most of the victims were contacted to respond to identify their property. Holmes Lumber employees found a fraction of the $2100 dollar in lumber taken. The Outlet storeowner recovered several generators and a massage table from their reported burglaries. In addition, approximately 15 reported thefts were cleared with most of the property being located.
Mendocino County Sheriff’s added additional charges of possession of stolen property to Ivey’s recent arrest. These new current charges allowed them to contact a Judge to add a bail enhancement increasing Ivey’s bail from $0 to $50,000. The State of California Judicial Council has placed a zero dollar for emergency order for Covid custody relief. Without this added enhancement, Ivey would have been released from custody.
Fort Bragg Police Department would like to praise John Gould from Homes Lumber yard for his persistence to follow through with his recent social media statement of devoting as much time as he could to locate and identify the person who took his company’s lumber paid off on Friday night. His persistence and communication with the department has not only solved his theft but has located the property of other theft victims along the north coast! As John has stated, “He picked the wrong business to rip-off”. It is persons like this who take a stance and work with law enforcement to provide continued quality of life for are community!
Earlier Chapter
What does the fence look like that he was suspected of building?