Originally published as a Lake County Sheriff’s Office Facebook post –
“On April 18th, 2022, the Lake County Sheriff’s Office received a call about a burglary off Hwy 29 in Middletown. A neighbor informed the owner that the lock to his storage container was cut off, the door was open, and the door to his house appeared to have been forced open.
Deputy McCabe responded to the burglary scene and began his preliminary investigation and determined the suspects had walked onto the property. Deputy McCabe located a path leading from Hwy 29 onto the property and located several piles of stolen property. He also discovered a discarded food wrapper that served as a key indicator to identifying the suspects. Knowing there are limited places to get food late at night in Middletown, Deputy McCabe went to the Store 24 gas station and reviewed the security footage for the day of the burglary. He identified the truck which was placed at the scene by the neighbor and the two suspects known to him through previous law enforcement contacts.
After determining the suspect’s identity and locating stolen property in the truck bed using various security footage, Deputy McCabe requested and was granted a search warrant on April 20th, 2022. The following day, several deputies and detectives executed the search warrant, which resulted in the arrest of Ronald Whitmire, 52, and Sunny McClain, 49, both of Clearlake, and the return of the rest of the stolen property.”
