Malta business broken into over New Years break

When Jay and Jessica Weston arrived at work for the first time in 2015 they discovered that they had been robbed.

"My little brother got here before me and noticed that the door was already open," Jay, owner of A&J Mobile Fleet Repair, said on Friday afternoon. "The doors to one of the busses out back was open and the keys that were in the bus where on the ground in front of it."

The Westsons shut down for business on New Year's Eve at noon, were closed on January 1 and when they opened for business last Friday discovered that the back door of their building had been pried open, that a window at the back of the building had been broken and a dozen items, including cash from the shop's office, had been stolen.

Jay said that two vehicles in his shop had their doors open and he could tell that contents once in the center consuls of the vehicles were scattered around the shop's floor. He said that the office in the shop had also been tossed during the break in.

A Phillips County Sheriff's Office Deputy spent two hours at the crime scene on Friday morning investigating the crime and taking fingerprints from several locations in the shop. A full investigation is underway.

Jay said that besides the cash taken from the office that a pair of binoculars, a box of bullet shells, a custom made knife, a personal check written to Jessica were among the items taken. The Westons have been in business with A&J Mobile Fleet Repair for three years and have never had this type of trouble before.

"This isn't the type of thing that happens in Malta," Jay said. "Maybe it was somebody heading through on their way to the Bakken, but I don't know."

Jay said that he has no idea who would have broken into the building and he checked with businesses on either side of him after discovering the break in and both businesses said that nothing had been out of place in their buildings.

Other items taken during the break in where a new 12 volt Dewalt Drill and battery, and a gold knife with a personalized inscription inlayed on it. The vehicles ransacked were those of current customers of A&J Mobile Fleet Repair.

Anyone who might have knowledge of the crimes perpetrators are encouraged to call the Phillips County Sheriff's Office at 406-654-2350.