Ex-Woodgrain worker jailed in plant burglaries, thefts

A 46-year-old Powell Butte man, let go by Prineville’s Woodgrain Millwork several years ago, has been arrested on charges he broke into the plant on two recent occasions and stole tools, equipment and a pickup truck, police said Wednesday.

They said he was caught using the stolen pickup to try to pull another vehicle out of the snow that he’d crashed two days earlier.

Police first were called to the closing Woodgrain facility at 1948 North Main Street on Nov. 23 on a burglary and theft report, said Sgt. Tom Kurtz. They returned to the plant on Dec. 1 around 11 a.m. to take a second theft case, this time with a loss of over $10,000, including a white Ford F-350 pickup, Kurtz said.

The stolen vehicle was entered into state and national databases. And a short time later, a pickup matching that description was reported to be creating a traffic hazard in the eastbound lane of Powell Butte Highway near milepost 10, Kutz said.

Deschutes County sheriff’s deputies responded and quickly identified the pickup as stolen, then contacted Prineville police.

Thomas Russel Dopp was found with the stolen pickup, using it to pull a second vehicle out of the snow that he crashed two days earlier, Kurtz said.

Deschutes County deputies located a handgun and methamphetamine on Dopp, citing him for felon in possession of a weapon and meth possession before turning him over to Prineville police.

Several pieces of equipment and tools were found “within plain view in both vehicles,” which were towed from the scene as evidence, the sergeant said.

Dopp was taken to the Prineville police headquarters and interviewed, during which more evidence was recovered and he was arrested and booked into the Crook County Jail on the Dec. 1 Woodgrain burglary.

A search warrant later was executed on Dopp’s pickup, recovering more stolen items. Kurtz said more charges have been sent to the district attorney’s office for the Nov. 23 burglary and theft.

Dopp remained held at the jail Wednesday on $125,000 bail.

Doppp was a former employee at Woodgrain but was let go several years ago, before recent large layoffs in the wake of last year’s collapse of a snow-laden roof at the facility.

Some items taken in the burglaries have still not been recovered. Anyone with information about items stolen from Woodgrain is asked to contact Prineville Police Detective Brendin Nolan at 541-447-4168.