{"id":41974,"date":"2022-02-26T05:29:20","date_gmt":"2022-02-26T12:29:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/man-arrested-in-burglary-trespass-at-dolores-schools\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:04:24","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:04:24","slug":"man-arrested-in-burglary-trespass-at-dolores-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/man-arrested-in-burglary-trespass-at-dolores-schools\/","title":{"rendered":"Man arrested in burglary, trespass at Dolores Schools"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"One
One Dolores Elementary School student currently has COVID-19, Superintendent Reece Blincoe said Wednesday.<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

A former maintenance worker for the Dolores School District has been arrested on suspicion of burglary and trespass at the school, according to the Montezuma County Sheriff\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n

According to an incident report, on Feb. 9 Jose Benedicto Barrera-Monterroso, 37, was arrested while driving away from the school.<\/p>\n

\"Jose
Jose Benedicto Barrera-Monterroso (Courtesy Montezuma County Sheriff's Office)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Based on school surveillance tapes, he is suspected of entering the school several times and is suspected of stealing cash and a box of toilet paper, said Sheriff Steve Nowlin.<\/p>\n

Barrera-Monterroso faces multiple charges including second- and third-degree burglary, criminal trespass, possession of burglary tools, theft and criminal mischief.<\/p>\n

When arrested, he was found with a set of school keys, Nowlin said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe suspect gained entry using keys that had been stolen,\u201d Nowlin said.<\/p>\n

According to the incident report, in August and September, a total of $1,000 was reported missing from the Dolores Bears booster club\u2019s cash box. School Resource Officer Kaylee Green followed up with an investigation.<\/p>\n

No suspect was immediately found. A safe was installed for the booster club funds, and additional surveillance cameras were installed.<\/p>\n

On Dec. 28, a safe in the school kitchen\u2019s office was found to have been broken into, and the new safe for the booster club had been tampered with, according to the incident report.<\/p>\n

While reviewing weeks of surveillance video, Green observed a person in a gray hoodie wearing a white mask in the school on Jan. 26, Jan. 27 and Feb. 9 in the early morning hours. In some videos, the suspect was seen going into the closet where the booster money was kept. However, the person\u2019s identification was unknown.<\/p>\n

In early February, Green and Nowlin conducted surveillance operations for four nights at the school. On Feb. 9 about 12:30 a.m., they witnessed a man in a gray hoodie and mask exit a dark-colored Chevy Tahoe and enter school buildings.<\/p>\n

When the suspect left the school, they pulled over the vehicle and arrested Barrera-Monterroso at Fourth Street and Central Avenue. Search warrants were obtained for his vehicle and home.<\/p>\n

Nowlin said the school spend $15,000 to change all the locks on the campus. According to the incident report, when Barrera-Monterroso quit his job at the school in 2021, he turned in his keys, but he is suspected of making copies.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was quite a lengthy investigation by Deputy Green,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Barrera-Monterroso worked for several years as a maintenance worker at the school and quit in September 2021, according to the case report.<\/p>\n

After his arrest, he posted bond. He is due in Montezuma County Court March 3 for filing of charges.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Suspect was a former maintenance worker, allegedly gained access using keys<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41975,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[168,44,28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-41974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-crime","tag-dolores","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41974"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41974\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85170,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41974\/revisions\/85170"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41974"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=41974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}