Felony charges were filed against suspects in a one-night vandalism spree that ended with a warehouse fire.
Hunter B. Hohn, 19, Marion, and Zachary Z. Edwards, 19, Appleton, both face charges of arson, burglary, theft and six counts of criminal damage to property.
At 3 a.m. on Aug. 3, Clintonville police responded to a fire call at the Advanced Home Technologies warehouse on Eighth Street.
When the officers arrived, they found the warehouse fully engulfed in the blaze. Flames had reached the power lines, causing the transformers to explode.
While the officers were controlling the scene, Clintonville police received a call reporting two men in dark clothes just stole a Garmin GPS unit and a cellphone from a parked car on Fifth Street.
The caller also reported the two men rode off on two stolen bicycles.
Officer Cody Rollin remained at the scene, and Capt. Dennis Schroeder and Sgt. Matthew Wright responded to the theft complaint.
Rollin then saw two men in dark clothes walking across a nearby parking lot.
When Rollin made contact with them, they identified themselves as Hohn and Edwards.
Schroeder and Wright returned to question the two men about why they were there.
According to the criminal complaint, they said they wanted to watch the fire from a nearby hill.
A search of Edwards’ backpack uncovered a Garmin GPS unit.
Further investigation found that an AHT truck had been parked inside the warehouse at the time of the fire. A Garmin GPS had been inside the truck.
Addresses of AHT customers matched addresses recorded on the GPS unit.
Hohn and Edwards reportedly blamed each other for starting the fire inside the truck parked in the warehouse.
They also are also accused of spending much of the ealy morning hours of Aug. 3 vandalizing four car dealerships, damaging vehicles at those dealerships and flipping over soda machines.
They face up to 40 years in prison if convicted of arson, and are both currently in custody on a $20,000 cash bond.