Solar panel heist foiled

Two men caught in South County

By DAVID RYAN
Register City Editor

A tip from a watchful citizen led to the capture of two men believed to have stolen solar panels in Rutherford.

Before dawn on Monday, an unidentified resident saw two men adjusting a tarp over the back of their small, imported pick-up truck along Rutherford Cross Road, according to the Napa County Sheriff’s Department. The resident knew about a rash of recent solar panel thefts — in which more than $100,000 worth of solar panels were taken from arrays at two Rutherford wineries and a Lake Hennessey site owned by the city of Napa — from media reports and an e-mail message put out by the Napa Valley Vintners.

The activity looked suspicious enough that the resident called police with the direction the truck was going and its license plate number.

The Napa County Sheriff’s Department immediately put out a countywide broadcast for all police agencies to be on the lookout for the truck, and searched the Rutherford area. A patrol caught up to the truck at Tower Road and Highway 29, near the American Canyon city limit.

Officers found solar panels underneath the tarp.

In a prepared statement, the sheriff’s department identified the two men as Thomas Lee Rivamonte, 50, of Oakley, and Jason Lee Allen, 34, of Antioch. Both were placed under arrest on suspicion of grand theft and possession of stolen property and later booked at Napa County Jail.

Deputies later determined the solar panels were taken from the city of Napa Water Facility on Sage Canyon Road — the second theft at that site in the last two weeks.

Although the sheriffs department offered no information about the panels taken in the most recent theft, the earlier theft saw the loss of 40 Sanyo 3-by-4.5 foot solar panels estimated by city representatives at $30,000.

The panels were part of a $2.7 million solar collector system the city installed July 2006 to generate power at the foot of Conn Dam.

The solar arrays are connected to a pump that lifts water to the water treatment plant from Lake Hennessey, cutting the city’s power bill by $100,000 each year, according to Pat Costello, a city water department representative.

It was the fourth reported theft of solar panels in Napa County this month. Recent thefts of solar panels also took place at ZD Winery and Honig Vineyard and Winery.

The Napa County Sheriff’s Department is continuing to investigate the thefts. Anyone with information about the thefts is asked to call Det. Todd Hancock at 253-4591.

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