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Sheriff seeking thieves who stole from monks

Naomi Havlen
Aspen Times Staff Writer

The sheriff’s office is looking for help finding two suspects who may have stolen wallets from St. Benedict’s Monastery in Old Snowmass.

Four monks at the monastery, located 10 miles up Capitol Creek Road, reported missing wallets to sheriff’s officials on Tuesday afternoon. At least one stolen credit card had already been used by the suspects to obtain cash.

Sheriff’s deputy George Kremer said he was first notified of the thefts by one monk from the monastery. The monk told Kremer a man he did not recognize entered his room Tuesday afternoon and when he was confronted by the monk, he said he was there to “sell Father Joseph some flags.”



The monk asked the man to leave, and told him to call the monastery instead. Kremer said the monk later noticed that his wallet was missing from his office down the hall.

Three other monks later reported missing wallets. Kremer said the monks gave descriptions of two men seen around the monastery, and the truck they drove away.




The truck is described as a mid-’80s full-sized Ford with an extended cab, reddish-maroon in color, with a white accenting strip running down the sides.

One of the suspects is said to be a white male in his 50s, with light or gray curly hair. A monk said this suspect was clean-shaven, could have been missing some teeth, and was wearing a sweatshirt with the sleeves cut off.

Another monk described a suspect as a man in his 40s who was “carrot-topped” with bright-orange hair, wearing a denim jacket and jeans. The two men were seen leaving the monastery together in the truck, Kremer said.

The deputy later discovered that one credit card had already been used to obtain $100 cash from an ATM at a 7-11 convenience store in West Glenwood. No other credit-card companies have reported fraudulent uses since the cards were reported stolen, Kremer said.

If anyone recognizes the truck or the suspects by their descriptions, they are asked to call the Pitkin County Sheriff’s office, or the Glenwood Springs Police Department.

“On one hand, I really hope they just left the valley,” Kremer said. “But on the other, I’d really like to catch them. It’s pretty low to steal from monks.”