IDAHO FALLS — An Idaho Falls man has been charged with allegedly stealing more than $5,000 worth of goods from a local storage unit.
Stephen J. Saxey, 41, is charged with three felony counts of burglary and one count of felony grand theft. If found guilty, he faces up to 44 years in prison and may have to pay up to $155,000 in fines and restitution.
According to court documents, the victim reported that on April 22, he arrived at his storage unit at Grand Teton Storage to find that someone had entered it.
The victim formerly lived in the area but now lives out of state. According to court documents, he had not been to the unit since November 2024.
The victim told police that the unit was locked when he arrived, and the lock did not appear to have been tampered with.
As reported in court documents, approximately $5,500 worth of items were missing from the unit. Among the missing items was a guitar signed by Brad Paisley, which is valued at roughly $1,500.
In place of his missing items, the victim allegedly found footprints on boxes in the unit that appeared to show someone had climbed through the ceiling from an adjacent unit.
The victim was able to locate and recover the Brad Paisley guitar and a second guitar from Pawn One in Ammon.
Pawn One employees then identified Saxey as the individual who had allegedly sold the guitars to the pawn shop. The victim was additionally able to locate and recover more of his property at Musical Service Center in Idaho Falls. Musical Service Center employees identified Saxey as the seller of the items.
An officer interviewed Saxey at the Bonneville County Jail on April 30, where Saxey was incarcerated on unrelated charges.
When interviewed, the documents state that Saxey claimed he and his girlfriend owned the storage unit at Grand Teton Storage. The manager of the storage facility confirmed that Saxey’s unit was directly adjacent to the victim’s.
When asked if Saxey had recently pawned anything, Saxey told officers that he had sold two guitars and a saxophone. Saxey allegedly claimed to have gotten the items from an online storage unit auction, but had no other information.
After the interview, the officer took photos of the shoes Saxey had been booked into the Bonneville County Jail with. According to court documents, the shoes matched the footprints in the victim’s storage unit.
Saxey is set to appear before Magistrate Judge John Dewey on June 20th at 1 p.m.
Though Saxey has been charged with these crimes, this does not necessarily mean he committed them. Everyone is presumed innocent until proven guilty.
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