3 Arrested May Be Linked to Change Machine Crime Spree

By Jon Jordan, NEWS 9

OKLAHOMA CITY – Oklahoma City police have arrested three people in connection to a string of car wash burglaries.

According to police, two police officers confronted 31-year-old Danny Lee, 48-year-old Richard Eaton and 43-year-old Candace Dagnan when they saw them near a change machine at the car wash at S.E. 44th Street and Byers. Officers found that the three were burglarizing the change machines.

Police said the three may be linked to similar burglaries stretching as far away as Texas.

"When officers took them into custody, they also found a number of items, evidence that these three have been involved in quite a few of these burglaries," said Oklahoma City Master Sergeant Gary Knight.

In the past few years, those in the vending machine business said their machines are more often getting broken into and thieves are getting away with their hard earned money.

"You hear about them routinely, it's a weekly thing. There is someone going around daily or nightly and helping themselves to people's money," said Steve Wilson, owner of America's Vending Center.

Wilson said since the economy took a dip, more and more vendors are finding their vending machines being broken into. He said if a thief is good enough at it, in just a couple of minutes, they could walk away with as much as $200.

"What they are after is this coin mechanism, that's full of money, the change box that's full of money, and in each machine there is a bill validator that accepts bills, ones and fives usually," Wilson said.

Wilson said he is frustrated because there's really no way to police the problem with so many vending machines.

"It's your money. It's gone and you got a $12,000 to $15,000 dollar nice machine, and it's destroyed. That's all lost revenue," Wilson said.

In an effort to prevent additional thefts in the future, Wilson said he is toying with the idea of adding alarm systems to some of his vending machines in hopes of deterring thieves.

Lee, Eaton and Dagnan were booked into the Oklahoma County jail on second-degree burglary, possession of burglary tools and receiving/concealing stolen property complaints.