Man charged in connection with BYU-I bookstore thefts
- posted: 02 Oct. 2007
- scrollnews@byui.edu
A 26-year-old man has been charged with grand theft for possession of stolen property from the BYU-Idaho Bookstore. Zachariah John Rodgers, a former resident of Rexburg, turned himself in to the police and was arrested Sept. 20.
Rodgers, who previously lived in Massachusetts, was living in the Detroit, Mich., area when police officers contacted him about the charges he faced. Rodgers was not a BYU-I student.
Capt. Garth Gunderson, of the Campus Division of the Rexburg Police Dept., said that Rodgers was connected with the bookstore thefts in February, in which two international BYU-I students and a former student living in Utah were arrested for stealing books from the campus bookstore.
“[Rodgers] sold books on his Internet business. The three young men from Zambia sold books [stolen from the bookstore] to him, and then he sold them online,” Gunderson said.
Gunderson estimated that hundreds of books were shoplifted and sold, though a large number of books have been recovered. The investigation was lengthy.
“The reason [Rodgers] was not arrested until now is that the lead investigator, Randy Reese, has been going through financial records trying to pin receipts together to find which books were stolen,” Gunderson said.
The other men charged, Andrew Sinyangwe, Humphery Sinyangwe and Bronson Chikusu, are being held as material witnesses and won’t be released until this case is resolved, Gunderson said. 
