Photo: Corey Ryan Walter and his stolen car
West Valley High School in Shasta County had been the target of multiple recent crimes including gate locks being cut, buildings broken into, and gasoline siphoned from school vehicles.
On July 11th, a staff member reported the crimes to Shasta County Sheriffs and shared surveillance video with them showing a gold colored car coming onto school property. The suspect had returned to the school on multiple occasions and deputies devised a plan to catch him during his next visit.
That night a deputy set up with night vision optics to watch the campus while other deputies waited in their car nearby. At almost midnight, a gold coupe made its way into the high school campus parking lot and parked in an area not easily visible from Happy Valley Road. The driver did not immediately exit the vehicle but when he did, he was observed taking items out of the trunk.
Determining that the subject had no legitimate reason to be on campus, deputies swarmed the driver, 26-year old Corey Ryan Walter of Anderson.
A search of Walter’s car came up positive for a substance suspected to be methamphetamine, drug paraphernalia, musical instruments, and tools associated with breaking into buildings and cutting locks. Deputies also found an empty five-gallon gas container with a siphoning hose which deputies witnessed Walter remove from the trunk.
Walter, who at the time of this incident was on probation convictions for carrying a concealed dirk or dagger and possession of a stolen vehicle, admitted he stole the instruments from the school, burglarized the buildings, and siphoned gas from school vehicles.
Walter was booked into the Shasta County Jail where he faces charges of burglary, possession of stolen property, violating his probation, possession of burglary tools, possession of drug paraphernalia, and possession of a controlled substance.
Photos from SCSO
