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A Warsaw man is being held in Huntington County Jail charged with burglary after police tracked him through the snow.
Richard O. Piper, 41, Suburban Acres, was arrested Tuesday morning after police tracked him several miles from a home he is suspected of burgling.
Piper is being held on $100,000 bond and charged with burglary, a Class B felony. He will appear in Huntington County Circuit Court at 9 a.m. Monday.
He is suspected of breaking into the home of Louis Machall on Division Road, Huntington County.
Machall returned to his home around 10:50 a.m. Tuesday. He found a set of double doors open and a house window broken, but he did not find anyone inside the house.
Machall called 911 and the Huntington County Sheriff's Department responded. Capt. Kent Farthing found footprints in the snow outside one of the house doors.
Police followed the tracks and checked an abandoned vehicle found near the house. A woman who lived on CR 975W, one county road away from Machall's home, called police and said there was a suspicious man near her house. She described the suspect as wearing camouflage clothing and a ski mask and carrying a hunting bow and arrows.
As police spoke with her, the officers following the tracks in the snow came to the same area. The sheriff called in the Wabash County Sheriff's Department, Department of Natural Resources and the Indiana State Police to help search the nearby fields and woods.
The suspect was found 1-1/2 hours later and two miles west of the house he allegedly broke into.
The Huntington County Sheriff's Department reported that the burglar had stacked Machall's personal property by the front door, apparently to make it easier for him to carry to his vehicle. However, police suspect Machall interrupted the burglar by coming home.
None of Machall's property was recovered on Piper when he was arrested.
The Huntington County Sheriff's Department is continuing the investigation.
