Chadron police say a stolen pickup recovered this morning on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation was apparently used in a string of more than 30 thefts from motor vehicles last night.

Lt Rick Hickstein says the case began about 10:30 when a resident reported 3 “suspicious subjects” walking away from the callers vehicle in the 300 block of Morehead Street.

The investigating officers found the vehicle had been entered, so they began searching the area…added by the Nebraska State Patrol and Dawes County Sheriff’s Department.

Hickstein says that during the search, officers found several other vehicles had been broken into and gone through. Owners reported a wide range of items missing…including purses, billfolds, currency, checkbooks, keys, and electronics such as MP3 players and GPS devices.

A little after midnight, while the search was continuing, police received a report of a reckless driver in a red pickup and followed a trail of trash that included food and beer cans north along Slim Buttes Road to the Nebraska-South Dakota state line at the reservation.

Hickstein says the officers felt the pickup was related to the thefts and contacted authorities on the reservation. The owner of the pickup reported it stolen about 8:30 this morning, and Oglala Sioux tribal police told Chadron police about 2 hours later that they had recovered the pickup and several stolen items.