A fake Rolex on the dashboard of a car spotted by an eagle-eyed police officer helped nab a suspected burglary suspect in Colorado Springs.
Steven Hovind, 47, was arrested Tuesday and he’s a suspect in at least two Independence Day burglaries near Austin Bluffs Parkway and Stetson Hills Boulevard in the Castilian Villas neighborhood, according to the Colorado Springs Police Department crime blotter.
Police also credit alert neighborhood residents in helping them to zero in on the suspect.
At about 11 p.m. Monday residents called police about a suspicious vehicle in the neighborhood. One call was on a man wearing dark clothing and a “headlamp” who disappeared into bushes on a property.
Police checked on the suspicious car and traced it to the registered owner, Hovind, who was wanted on an active felony warrant.
On Tuesday officers went to Hovind’s home and arrested him on the warrant. At the home an officer spotted a “knock-off Rolex” watch on the console of the car, the same vehicle that had been reported to police the night before, the blotter said.
Police said the watch is among items that were reported stolen from a home in the area where the car was spotted and the man disappeared into bushes.
A search warrant was obtained for the vehicle and investigators found other items they believe were stolen.
The case is ongoing, police said, and additional arrests are possible.
Kieran Nicholson: 303-954-1822 or knicholson@denverpost.com.
