Fairhope police nab 'extremely active' Baldwin County burglary suspects

FAIRHOPE, Al.
Police say they committed a burglary almost every day for two months.
Ashley Lewis, 21, and Joseph Howe, 28, had been living in Foley since August when the spate of 50 burglaries and attempted burglaries began, said Fairhope police spokesman Sgt. Craig Sawyer.
Lewis and Howe were picked up Friday afternoon, driving away from the Quail Creek subdivision in Fairhope, in the same 2005 white Dodge Grand Caravan, with disability access parking plates, believed to have been used during the burglaries.
"They were extremely active," Sawyer said. "Almost on a daily basis, they were out somewhere in Baldwin County attempting to burglarize a residence."
Inside the van, the arresting officers found stolen merchandise and drug paraphernalia, Sawyer said.
From the Foley home and a relative's residence, police recovered jewelry, designer purses, electronics, a firearm, clothing, equipment for printing counterfeit currency, and several sheets of recently printed counterfeit $20 bills from inside their Foley home, according to a news release from the Fairhope Police Department.
Since moving to the area from out of state, police said the suspects hit unlocked homes and vehicles across Baldwin County, including Fairhope, Daphne, Robertsdale, Foley, Loxley, Summerdale, and Silverhill.
"You've got to lock your cars," Sawyer said, "you've got to lock your homes."
It's yet unclear how the suspects developed information about the houses they burglarized, he added.
Lewis and Howe, still being held in the Fairhope jail, have been charged with receiving stolen property. Howe also was charged with possession of drug paraphernalia.
More charges and at least three more arrests are expected, according to Sawyer.
"This is blossoming a lot bigger than we initially thought it would," he said. "We will be working in the following days with most of the police departments in Baldwin County trying to tie all this together."
Investigators were unsure today whether the suspects committed burglaries in other states, but Sawyer said the investigation would involve federal agents.
He said Lewis and Howe were cooperating with authorities, but "I don't want to get into confessions because I don't want to jeopardize their right to trial."