In the wee hours of yesterday morning, Operator Kris Etheridge received audio activations from faint banging and scraping at a Taco Time restaurant in Caldwell, ID, which were followed by much louder noises and footsteps. She dispatched Caldwell PD and while she was giving them the information, she was notified of a door alarm at the restaurant’s back entry. She continued hearing lots of banging and crashing. Officers arrived at the scene but were still waiting for backup as Kris continued hearing the suspect inside. Once the backup arrived, the officers forced the suspect out of the building. The suspect was not compliant with the police – even shouting that he wanted to speak with a lawyer first– until they threatened to send in the K-9.

The store manager later reviewed the camera footage and saw that the suspect originally approached the adjacent parking lot wearing business clothes, but then he went to the back outdoor area of the store and changed into jeans and a sweatshirt. He walked around to the front and began knocking on the front glass windows. He then took a glass punch to the front door and broke it in. From there, the suspect was apparently quite thirsty from his exertion and went to the soft drink machine to get a drink. Once his thirst was quenched, he took a large metal fire extinguisher to the office door where the safe is stored. He then began using the extinguisher as a battering ram but was unable to break down the door. The back of the restaurant was filled with extinguisher foam and glass.

The restaurant’s management team stayed the whole night following the arrest to clean up so that they could open for business in the morning.

According to the police report and news coverage, the damage inside the building also included a broken-out drive-thru window and a dented cooler door.

Police were unable to determine a motive for the rampage, other than the suspect’s apparent drunkenness. The suspect was booked into the Canyon County Jail on numerous charges, including burglary, malicious injury to property, possession of burglary tools and resisting and obstructing.