Police: Candy jar connects man to hardware store burglaries

JUNCTION CITY, Ore. -- Police caught a burglar on Thursday for breaking into the same Junction City hardware store twice. 

Officials said that they took 36-year-old Jason Michael Donaldson into custody on Thursday after police served a search warrant of his home. Officers found a number of stolen items in the house, many that were taken from a Junction City hardware store.

When the B & I True Value store in Junction City was burglarized last August, store owner Cary Claar said that he never expected to find the thief. He came into the store to discover that someone had broke open their safe with a pick ax. The thief made off with $5,000 and some tools.

Over two months later, Claar arrived at the store to find that it had been broken into again.

"We had broken glass entrance that they used through that door," said Claar. "They took a splitting maul from the hardware store and gained entry into the office."

Claar said that the thief didn't get into the safe in the second break-in on October 22nd. However the burglar did take a unique candy jar that was sitting on top of the safe.

On Thursday police served a search warrant at the residence of Donaldson, where they discovered a number of stolen items. Among them was the missing candy jar.

"It's kinda like getting caught with your hands in the cookie jar… in this case it was a candy jar!" Claar said.

Police said that Donaldson had more stolen items in his home that they suspect are from other stores in the area.

He was arrested Thursday and is being held at the lane county jail on an unrelated theft charge. Police said that more charges will be filed against Donaldson pending an investigation.