Sex offender with artificial leg caught when selling stolen guitar

A burglary suspect with an artificial leg was identified after police say he tried to sell a stolen guitar and amplifier to a music store owner who called the burglary victim.

“The store owner described the suspect as a guy with a prosthetic leg and the victim realized the suspect lived next door to her,” said Ferndale Police Detective Ken Denmark.

Edward Hogan, 35, of Ferndale is charged in Ferndale 43rd District Court with second-degree home invasion and is scheduled for a pre-exam conference there at 1 p.m. Thursday.

Police said Hogan is also a registered sex offender and with at least two drug possession convictions.

The burglary happened July 26 on Leitch Street. Police said more than $2,000 worth of musical and electronic items was stolen after someone entered the house through an unlocked window while the woman was out of the house.

After the burglary, the woman contacted a number of local music stores to be on the lookout for her stolen guitar and amplifier, police said.

A short time later police said Hogan approached the owner of Gordy’s Music on Hilton Road and tried to sell the stolen musical equipment. Police said the music store owner asked to take the equipment to a friend to appraise its worth.

When the music store owner realized the equipment was stolen he contacted the woman and police were called, police said.

Denmark said Hogan at first falsely told police a neighbor burglarized the woman’s house. Later, Hogan told investigators he served as a lookout during the burglary while a relative entered the woman’s house.

Police said the relative agreed to take a polygraph test which was inconclusive.

Source: http://www.dailytribune.com/