A Virginia man is facing charges after he allegedly stole more than 200 semi truck side mirrors from truckers in the Stafford County area.
According to the Office of Stafford County Sheriff (SCSO), twenty-seven year old Carlos Flores Hernandez has been charged with two counts of grand larceny and two counts of tampering with a vehicle.
He was held without bond in the Rappahannock Regional Jail in connection to a years-long rash of side mirror thefts plaguing truck drivers in the area of Stafford County, Virginia.
“Over the last three years, there have been numerous reports of side mirrors being stolen from unoccupied tractor trailers in the area. This was especially frustrating for the victims, as the trucks were out of service waiting for a replacement mirror. Deputies and detectives were looking into the thefts and conducting surveillance details, but were unable to crack the case. The thefts were all smoke and mirrors, with no productive leads…until last week when a crafty resident helped solve the crime,” SCSO said.
On November 13, a truck driver reported the side mirror stolen from his Volvo tractor which was parked on Eskimo Hill Road. The truck driver told police that he’d placed an AirTag on the mirror and traced it to an address in North Stafford.
Officers conducted surveillance on the residence and on November 20 executed a search warrant.
“Detective K.L. Warnick discovered a literal house of mirrors and recovered 206 truck mirrors, including the stolen mirror with the AirTag. Amazingly, the helpful thief had placed a sticker on many of the mirrors, indicating the date and location of the theft. We do not know what the offender sees in truck mirrors, but he had quite the collection,” SCSO said.
Police admitted that “there is a lot of investigative work left to do. It appears the suspect began stealing side mirrors several years ago and hasn’t looked back since.”
The investigation is ongoing.