Dumpster diving cop recovers jewelry

Officer Mitch Elliott in front of Dumpster #5, where a man nearly lost $50,000 in heirloom jewlery. Photo by Conrad Weiler

Officer Mitch Elliott of the Black Butte Ranch Police was on duty when the phone call came in. It was about 9:40 p.m. on Tuesday, May 27, following Memorial Day weekend.

Valuables had been lost at the Ranch garbage transfer station.

A couple had left for Portland when they realized that a garbage bag, containing over $50,000 in jewelry, had been accidentally tossed in the dumpster at BBR along with two other bags of trash.

Officer Elliott immediately went over to the transfer station and started searching each dumpster for a described white garbage bag with pink drawstring, tossed in on the right side of one of the 16 dumpsters. Of course, after a holiday weekend, the dumpsters were overflowing with trash -- and lots of white bags.

Using lights from his patrol car and gloving up, Elliott removed various trash items from several dumpsters, and made a trash pile pathway until he finally found the garbage bag with the missing jewelry in the fifth dumpster.

The jewelry was photographed and itemized at BBR police station and a relative of the Portland couple, still at BBR, picked up the valuable items.

The thankful couple, happy to get a lifetime of heirloom jewels returned, wanted to reward Officer Elliott.

It is against police department policy to accept rewards but the couple has decided to make a donation to the BBR Police Department, starting a fund to provide for a bicycle safety program at the Ranch.

Officer Elliott has been in law enforcement for over 10 years, in Redmond, Sisters and BBR.

"I've found my home here with the police at the Ranch and am very happy to be working here. It was particularly nice to be able to help these folks recover their lost jewelry," said Elliott, who is Property Officer and Field Training Officer at BBR.

He and his wife Joy live in Bend with their two children, daughter Rylinn, age nine, and son Randon, age seven.

His dad, Dave Elliott, is Mayor in Sisters.

"I'll owe lots of ice cream to fellow officers when they see my picture in the paper," said Elliott.

Fire and Police personnel have a pact that your picture in the paper means you have to provide ice cream for other officers.

"Lucky my dad has an ice cream store in Sisters," Elliott said.