4.14.23 – Portland, Ore. (KATU)
An attempted burglary at Enterprise Rent-A-Car in Oregon didn’t go as planned for two suspects, ending in nudity, blackberry thorns and arrests for multiple charges.
The incidents happened the night of April 12, when police responded to a silent alarm at an Enterprise location in Portland. Responding officers saw a light inside the building and a broken window, then watched two suspects run from the building.
One of the suspects then tried starting a car in the gated back lot, and was opening the hood and “messing with the engine,” according to court documents. After the car failed to start, both suspects then ran off into nearby property alongside railroad tracks.
A K9 was brought in to pick up the scent. Officers then tracked one suspect, later identified as 21-year-old Eathan Dennis, to a blackberry bush patch. Officers warned him if tried to run he might be bit by the K9, and Dennis then yelled “I’m in here.”
Dennis was stuck inside the blackberry bushes and completely naked. Officers had to use borrowed garden shears to cut Dennis free from the blackberry patch before arresting him.
Dennis told police he hid in the bushes because he was “just really high.”
The other suspect, 27-year-old Timothy Aron Williams, was later arrested inside a train car. Police say his clothes seemed to be torn up from hopping the barbed wire fence at Enterprise.
Williams told officers he met Dennis at a nearby Fred Meyer and they ended up at Enterprise after doing drugs together, having decided to “just do some s—,” as Williams is quoted saying in the court documents. Williams also said he was shocked climbing an electric fence by Enterprise, claiming “7000 volts is a lot.”
Police met up with an Enterprise manager who showed them the burglary damage, which included six vehicles that had been ransacked, circuit breakers that were turned off and a camera system that was tampered with.
Williams was arraigned Thursday on burglary, criminal mischief, theft, attempted theft and attempted unauthorized use of a motor vehicle charges and is due back in court July 14. Williams told jail staff he is homeless and has lived in Portland for 10 years.
Dennis is due to be arraigned May 4. He told jail staff he has been homeless since he was 15 and has lived in Portland for five years