Golden – A community corrections escapee arrested last week may be involved in a recent string of area burglaries, authorities said Monday.
David Heckman, 31, was taken into custody Wednesday by state troopers when he allegedly fled from a vehicle stuck in the mud at C-470 and West Quincy Avenue.
After a short foot chase, Heckman was caught and officers determined he was wanted on an arrest warrant for escape.
Heckman was arrested on suspicion of vehicle theft, identity theft, driving under the influence of alcohol, resisting an officer and being a fugitive from the Colorado Department of Corrections, according to records from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.
A number of items in the vehicle came from a recent burglary, police said, one in a series of residential break-ins since April 1 that were committed in Jefferson, Arapahoe and Douglas counties and Denver.
In some cases, the burglaries were committed while people were at home, either asleep or in their backyards.
“My wife and grandson were asleep in the house,” said Gary Christensen, a Denver Newspaper Agency pressman who came home from work in the early morning of April 12 to discover a window screen cut and his back door wide open.
“I think they were still in the house when I got home,” Christensen said.
A 50-inch plasma TV, jewelry, a laptop computer, his wife’s purse and three cameras were taken, he said.
“After this, we put in a security system,” Christensen said. “We probably overdid it, but we really didn’t sleep until they were installed.”
The stuck vehicle had been stolen, and several items inside – such as credit cards, cellphones and checkbooks – did not appear to belong to Heckman, according to Jacki Kelley, a spokeswoman for the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.
A search warrant executed at Heckman’s home revealed more items, Kelley said, and others appear to have been pawned.
Heckman, who has a criminal history dating to 1993, is being held without bail in the Jefferson County Jail on the escape charge. The sheriff’s and district attorney’s offices are continuing to investigate the burglaries.
Staff writer Ann Schrader can be reached at 303-278-3217 or aschrader@denverpost.com.
