Stolen police equipment found inside U-Haul truck in Mountain View

Two people were arrested and a third man is on the run after stolen police equipment was recovered from a U-Haul truck in Mountain View.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (KTVU) - Mountain View Police recovered a Uhaul last Friday filled with stolen police equipment. They were quick to point out that no firearms were found.
Still, there were duffle bags full of other items officers use regularly. Two people are already under arrest, and a third is on the run.

An officer on routine patrol saw it first: a Uhaul parked right by the front entrance of the Mountain View Kohls.

Katie Nelson with Mountain View Police says, "Something instinctively made him go hmm that's not right."

His instincts turned out to be spot on. A theft report came just then from Kohls,which led to a search of the Uhaul, which led to an unbelievable discovery.

In the back of the vehicle, was duffle after duffle filled with stolen police equipment.

Nelson says, "I can't go into too much detail on that but I can say that I know that at least we found chains and handcuffs that belonged to a Bay Area department."

Mountain View Police won't identify which Bay Area department or when the bags of equipment might have been stolen. They also recovered stolen license plates and training materials from a state law enforcement agency.

Nelson says, "I can confirm that there were no firearms found. We've had that question several times now. And there was nothing related to a San Jose Police department case that was recently reported on."

Officers quickly arrested two people, James Atkins Jr. of San Francisco and Ashley Hund of Livermore.

They say a search of their rooms at the nearby Hotel Avante turned up drug paraphernalia and meth.

Authorities say they're still taking inventory of all the stolen police equipment, and will now work on returning it to its rightful owners.

Nelson says, "In the wrong hands that could be a huge problem. So being able to recover this and return them to the agencies with whom it actually belongs, that's a big sigh of relief for everybody involved."

Police are still trying to identify a possible third suspect in the case.