WillyBWright
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Associated Press<br />Posted: March 22, 2005<br />Appleton - A trail of stolen coins led police from a convenience store that had been robbed to the home of the two alleged thieves.<br /> <br />An officer investigating a robbery at an Open Pantry early Monday was checking outside the store for footprints when he saw a quarter in the snow, Appleton police Sgt. Pat DeWall said.<br /><br />"He walked a little further and saw another coin, and then a little further, he saw another one," DeWall said Tuesday.<br /><br />Officers followed the trail south for four blocks, then west for a block, with the number of coins increasing as they proceeded - including a full roll of dimes at one point, he said. Eventually, they found several coins on the front porch of a home.<br /><br />Among the items missing from the store were nine cartons of cigarettes and $785 in bills and coins.<br /><br />The getaway sieve<br />DeWall said the burglars loaded the stolen rolls of coins into a milk crate before they fled, and he speculated that as they ran south, some of the rolls broke and coins fell through the slats.<br /><br />Two of the home's residents were arrested.<br /><br />Michael A. Graves, 25, and Steven W. Sleeter, 19, were each charged Tuesday with felony burglary and misdemeanor theft. <br /><br />Graves also was charged with misdemeanor obstructing police, and Sleeter with bail jumping. <br /><br />Each was ordered held on $1,500 bond
