More than $700,000 worth of stolen items recovered

A man is in jail accused of stealing thousands of valuable items from across the Coachella Valley.

The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department served a search at a home on Cholla Drive in Palm Desert, near College of the Desert.

This investigation started back in August when police found stolen property and connected it to a storage unit theft.

Now the Sheriff’s Department is sifting through a home bursting with stolen items.

“It isn’t something we see every day we have seen it but it is uncommon.” said Deputy Armando Munoz of the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department.

Thousands of golf clubs, a sword, stacks of comics are just a few on a long list of items 54-year-old David Pedersen is accused of stealing from victims all over the valley.

We weren’t able to go inside, because that would interfere with the investigation.

But from what we saw of the inside of the home looked like something out of the show “Hoarders”.

Now the Sheriff’s Department will log and return these items to their owners which they say is going to take a while…

“They have to transport all the items to the station, log it into evidence, try to identify the stolen property and begin the process of contacting victims of that were burglarized,” Munoz said.

Those are victims who made a police report.

“Once all victims have been contacted and they have property they will be able to reach out to the community to identify the stolen property,” Munoz said.

When that call is sent out people who think they’ve had items stolen can come to view and identify them.

Before that can happen they have to go through the entire house…

The Sheriff’s Department estimates the worth of all the items as more than $700,000.

“Several burglaries here in the Coachella Valley property that’s being recovered here at his residence will be over hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars,” Munoz said.

The department said getting a serious criminal off the streets is a big win.

The investigation is still underway, deputies told me it was going to take them all day to go through that house.

Once they have gone through the items and contacted victims the Sheriff’s Department said they will put a call out on social media for people to come and claim their stolen items.

Pederson faces many charges including burglary and possession of stolen property.

If you have any further questions you can contact the Sheriff’s Department at 760-836-1600.