A former Imboden resident who was operating Rob’s Auction Service in Mountain Home, 41 year old ROBERT S. HOLDER, was booked into the Baxter County Detention Center this afternoon on a bench warrant charging him with three counts of felony theft of property.
The warrant was issued following an investigation by the Baxter County Sheriff’s Office into complaints that HOLDER had sold property through his auction service belonging to private individuals and had failed or refused to pay over the proceeds from the sales to them after the items were sold.
In the first case, a victim filed a report with the Sheriff’s Office stating she had made an agreement with HOLDER to pick up household items from her to be auctioned off. HOLDER picked up the items and sold them in October, 2015. The amount owed to the victim is $4,977.43. Despite repeated attempts by the victim to obtain this money from HOLDER, he never paid her.
The second theft count was filed after another victim reported to the Sheriff’s Office that he dropped off three pickup truck loads of items at the auction service that should have brought between $1,000 to $1,500 at auction. The victim has tried several times to obtain payment for those items without success and has not even been informed by HOLDER of how much the items actually sold for.
Theft count number three is based upon a complaint where a victim hired HOLDER to come to his apartment and pick up items to be sold at auction. These included household items and a 2000 Ford Explorer. These items were collectively valued at approximately $4,968.00. This victim made numerous attempts to contact HOLDER following the auction without success.
Sheriff’s Investigators made several attempts to contact HOLDER for interview, also without success, but did learn he had moved to Missouri. Investigators then obtained a bench warrant for the arrest of ROBERT S. HOLDER, who was picked up in Missouri by Missouri authorities on Tuesday, February 9th.
ROBERT HOLDER waived extradition proceedings in Missouri and was today picked up and brought to the Baxter County Detention Center. He was booked on charges of:
Theft of Property (3 counts) – Felonies
He is being held in lieu of $15,000 bond and will appear in Circuit Court on February 25th.
During the course of the investigation, information received indicated that HOLDER may also have kept money from sales from vendor booths at a flea market he operated without informing or paying the vendors for the items that had sold from their booths. The Sheriff’s Office recommends vendors at that flea market to check their inventories and report any verifiable discrepancies or losses to their local law enforcement agency.