A Bar Nunn resident was charged with felony counts of burglary and receiving stolen property during his initial appearance in Natrona County Circuit Court on Tuesday.

Joshua David Bland, 23, was arrested as part of a Natrona County Sheriff's Office investigation of 14 separate automobile burglaries that began March 17, according to an affidavit filed with the circuit court.

Assistant District Attorney Trevor Schenk recommended, and Circuit Court Judge Steve Brown agreed to set Bland's bond at $5,000 because of his prior criminal history and that the sheriff's office on Tuesday had executed other search warrants related to the burglaries.

Bland will have a preliminary hearing within a couple weeks to determine whether there is probable cause to bind his case over to state district court for trial.

After Bland's initial appearance, Schenk said he did not know how much this case might be related to the attempted break in at the Sunset Car Wash were related.

The case began March 24 when an unknown suspect or suspects entered an unsecured vehicle on Bel Vista in Bar Nunn. Among the items taken were "Magic the Gathering" playing cards worth $5,800.

A sheriff's investigator contacted a local business that sold and bought these playing cards. The business owner told the investigator that Bland came into his store on March 25 to sell some of these cards, some of which were rare and expensive. Bland told the owner that his uncle gave them to him.

The store owner knew Bland's uncle and talked to him that evening. Bland's uncle said he had given Bland these kinds of cards to him in the past, but never had owned any of the ones in question.

The investigator spoke to the burglary victim who confirmed the authenticity of the stolen cards.

On Monday, the store owner was shown a picture of Bland and confirmed he brought those cards to his store.

The investigator then went to Bland's last known address on Sunset Boulevard in Bar Nunn, which was his mother's house, and searched it. One of the rooms in the house had been recently vacated by a friend of Bland's named James Oliver who was traveling back to California.

The investigator also saw items in the room that resembled those taken in an auto burglary reported on March 26.

The investigator contacted Bland, and arrested him after taking him to the sheriff's office, according to the affidavit.

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