Serial burglar sent to prison

A Californian, who brought a ladder and other tools to a series of commercial burglaries, blamed his heroin addiction for his thievery.

Andrey Yakimov, 34, was sentenced to 2-5 years in prison after he admitted to burglarizing businesses.

“You’re a criminal with a drug problem,” District Judge Tod Young said. “You have a horrible record.”

Yakimov has a long criminal history and is also being held on a fugitive warrant from California.

“I know what I did affected people’s businesses and their lives,” he said. “I’ve had a drug addiction for the last 10 years.”

Yakimov was arrested in connection with four commercial burglaries early on Oct. 22.

Douglas County Sheriff’s investigators were responding to a series of burglaries at Carson Valley Plaza when they received a report someone was inside the Pacific Gas Station in Gardnerville. Security cameras at the gas station also showed a Prius that was found a few hours later with Yakimov inside. He was wearing an ankle monitor when he was taken into custody relates to a $100,000 warrant issued out of Placer County.

News reports of Yakimov’s thefts appear beginning in 2012 and most recently in 2018 when he was arrested in a stolen vehicle after Marin County deputies responded to a burglar alarm at a business. According to the July 18 bulletin, he was on supervision for a 2015 break-in in Sacramento.

• A man whose vehicle was stolen said all he cared about was getting his friend’s ashes back during a sentencing hearing on Tuesday.

“They were living in the car, they must have seen them,” he said. “I just want to know if they threw them in the river or out the window so I can report what happened to his wife and sister.”

Convicted car thief Terry Jon Van Pelt said he didn’t remember seeing anything resembling an urn, and the man said he believed him.

“Why wouldn’t he make up a story just to get me on his side?” he said in court.

Van Pelt was convicted of possession of a stolen motor vehicle.

A settlement resulted in an agreement to sentence Van Pelt to 12-30 months in prison.

“But for the agreement and the grace of (the victim), you would be getting the maximum sentence,” District Judge Tod Young said.

In addition to the sentence, Van Pelt was ordered to pay the victim $8,866 in restitution for the vehicle, and $348 to the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office for transporting him to Douglas from California where the vehicle was found.