SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) – In an ABC 4 News exclusive, Orem police report a string of unusual burglaries. This time, the culprits didn’t hit convenience stores or homes. They hit dental offices.It wasn’t just cash they were after. They also stole nitrous oxide, commonly known as laughing gas.
"Thank goodness they didn’t touch any of the dental equipment.” Said Dr. Kenny Maughan as he was working on a patient today in his clinic. Maughan runs a profitable practice which is home to an estimated $200,000 worth of state-of-the-art equipment. The thieves who broke in two nights ago didn’t touch any of it. They were apparently looking for something else.
"It looked like they were looking for something else,” said the relieved business owner.
The thieves took drugs, painkillers and other pills. And during their two night crime spree, they took canisters of nitrous oxide.
Orem police are now looking for at least two men they believe have a small cache of drugs, cash and equipment from five dental offices in Orem.
“Mostly medications, cash boxes, checks, televisions, DVD players,” Sergeant Craig Martinez recites a laundry list of stolen items. “But the main thing they we’re looking for is nitrous oxide.”
Martinez doesn’t think the bandits can pawn something like that, so they’re probably stuck with it.
“We hope that someone will spot the canisters and call police to tell us who has them,” he said.
It’s a new crime in a place where people aren’t accustomed to seeing much crime at all.
“We’ve been here nearly thirty years,” said Dr. Dave Berry, whose father started this practice a generation ago. “We have never had a break-in or been burglarized or been the target of crime before,” he said, shaking his head.
He hopes the crooks don’t come back. He says he doesn’t have anything they want.
"If that’s what they were after, which it seems they were, then I don’t think they got what they were looking for.”
Dr. Berry says he doesn’t store large amounts of drugs or keep much money in the office after hours. But he’s taking no chances. He replaced the battered door where the crooks broke in and replaced all the locks throughout the office.
Dr. Maughan is also taking action.
“I guess it’s time to get with the times and get a modern security system,” he said. “I guess if you live in Happy Valley, you assume everything’s fine and you don’t have to worry about anything.”