The UW-Madison Police Department and the Dane County Sheriff’s Office — in conjunction with officers from Sun Prairie Police, City of Madison Police, Fitchburg Police, Capitol Police, Janesville Police, Albany Police, and the Rock County Sheriff’s Office — have arrested Raymond M. Sanchez, III, age 37 of Footville, on multiple charges of Burglary. This was an extensive investigation that ultimately crossed state lines and resulted in the recovery of thousands of dollars in stolen property.
On April 6, Sanchez was taken into custody after a short pursuit where he crashed the stolen vehicle he was driving. Moments before the crash, Sanchez had used the stolen vehicle to drive through a locked garage door in a burglary attempt at Gander Outdoors near DeForest. When detectives learned he may be storing additional stolen property at his residence in the Village of Footville, a search warrant was obtained. Detectives with the Sheriff’s Office recovered numerous stolen items and other evidence linking Sanchez to multiple burglaries.
The respective agencies involved formed a task force of investigators to connect the stolen property to burglaries throughout Dane County and southern Wisconsin. During the investigation, detectives learned of two additional locations where stolen items were being stored. Search warrants were conducted at an address in the town of Sun Prairie and at a residence of an associate of Sanchez in Tooele, Utah.
Thus far, this task force of detectives have linked Sanchez to 21 burglaries of construction sites, UW Fraternity houses, retail businesses and storage lockers. Some of the property recovered includes numerous musical instruments from a Thanksgiving weekend burglary of the UW Humanities Building.
Raymond M. Sanchez, III, is currently being held in the Dane County Jail and detectives are continuing to work to identify additional victims and to return stolen property to the rightful owners. Anyone with information on Sanchez or his criminal activity is asked to call the Dane County tip line at (608) 284-6900 or online here.
Special thanks to the Dane County Sheriff’s Office, the Tooele City Police Department in Utah, and the many other agencies who assisted with this case.