HAMMOND | A man accused of furnishing his west side home with items burglarized from storage units and taking license plates, keys and titles to vehicles stolen from a Hessville car lot was charged with 10 felonies on Thursday.
Prosecutors allege Lloyd Dyvale Taylor III, 35, of the 500 block of 165th Street, cleaned out several rental spaces at Meier's Self Storage on Columbia Avenue in June, and took temporary license plates, titles and keys from U.S. Auto Sales on Kennedy Avenue in October. Police said they expect more charges soon.
Lansing police arrested Taylor on suspicion of breaking into vehicles there last week, and impounded the car he was driving. Police said that car was found to have a false Indiana temporary license plate.
Taylor bonded out on the Illinois charge, but when he returned with his young son to get his car out of tow, Lansing police noticed the vehicle he was driving also had a fictitious plate, and he was arrested again.
When his wife arrived to pick up their son, the vehicle she was driving also had a fictitious Indiana temporary plate, Lansing police said. The Lansing officers contacted their counterparts in Hammond.
A search warrant executed Tuesday on Taylor's 165th Street home found numerous items including televisions, stereos, video players, kitchen appliances, beds and living room furniture which had been reported stolen in June from the storage units.
"This guy had apparently decorated his house with things taken in the Meier's storage burglaries," said Lt. Michael Jorden, Hammond police public information officer.
Victims of the burglaries positively identified their stolen possessions at the house, and police also discovered items reported stolen in October from the Praxair Gas Tech office on Indianapolis Boulevard, according to court documents filed on Thursday.
U.S. Auto Sales owner Stevan Trazivuk said he's hoping to get his cars back. One was recovered shortly after the Oct. 19 burglary in which he reported five vehicles, five sets of keys, six Indiana temporary plates and 30 vehicle titles stolen.
Taylor is currently locked up in Lansing awaiting extradition to Lake County on the five burglary and five theft charges.
