By Lisa Trigg
TERRE HAUTE — A husband and wife face multiple counts of burglary in addition to drug charges after police serving a warrant at their residence found a variety of items stolen from self-storage facilities.
Ebb Howard and Heather Howard, both 29, appeared Friday in Vigo Superior Court Division 3 for initial probable cause hearings on three charges of burglary. Judge David Bolk also found probable cause for their arrest on a charge of manufacturing methamphetamine after a non-working meth lab allegedly was found in the couple’s garage. And police allegedly found Ebb Howard to be in possession of 3.4 grams of methamphetamine, leading to a class-D felony possession charge.
Detective Charles Burris of the Terre Haute Police Department reported in court that he got a search warrant for the Howard residence on South 25th Street on Wednesday. The warrant was served Thursday morning, and Ebb Howard agreed to cooperate. Burris said he admitted to about 15 burglaries, but was only being charged Friday with two that occurred at a storage facility on Spring Clean Avenue in North Terre Haute and one that occurred at a storage unit on Wabash Avenue.
Burris said police recovered enough stolen property to fill a full-size U-Haul trailer, a 16-foot box truck, a 12-foot box truck and two full-size vans. Most of the items were found at the Burris residence, the detective said, but some was recovered at a storage unit on Wabash Avenue. The recovered items included jewelry, collectibles, power tools, hunting and fishing equipment and other items.
During the search, police say they found the meth lab, which had all the items needed for a drug cook except for lithium batteries. The scene showed signs of previous drug cooks, he said.
The couple was arrested for the three class-C felony counts of burglary and class-B felony manufacturing methamphetamine.
Ebb Howard has current cases pending in Division 3 for possession of methamphetamine, possession of a controlled substance and theft. He also recently was charged with another burglary. In 2006, Howard pleaded guilty to possession of methamphetamine, precursors and marijuana and served eight months in the Indiana Department of Correction.
Judge Bolk set bond at $75,000 with no 10 percent allowed for both Howards. They were returned to the Vigo County Jail to await formalization of charges at a hearing set for 10 a.m. Wednesday.
Lisa Trigg can be reached at (812) 231-4254 or lisa.trigg@tribstar.com.
