Opinion ID: 1498148
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Breaking or Entering

Text: Appellant argues, first, that entry was never achieved into the coin machine at the south automatic car wash bay and was never even attempted into the change machine inside the cabinet and, second, the circumstances did not establish by substantial evidence that it was the appellant who had been tampering with the machines at the car wash. Taking the arguments in reverse order, the appellant was discovered at 3:05 a.m. at the Spot-Not Car Wash within sixty seconds of the sounding of a burglar alarm triggered by the entry into the wooden cabinet. Appellant gave no explanation for his presence at the car wash without a car at that unusual hour, except that his car had broken down in Eureka Springs and he was walking home. Tools useable for burglary were found on the ground and shoe prints similar to the shoes worn by appellant were found in the snow near the tools and by the money machines. Appellant had some $38 in nickels, dimes and quarters in his pockets, as well as two screw drivers and other articles shown to have been stolen earlier at nearby schools. Finally, appellant gave the police an implausible explanation for his presence at the car wash. We regard these circumstances as sufficient to support an inference that the appellant was engaged in breaking into the machines when apprehended by the police. Turning to the issue of entry, Ark.Code Ann. § 5-39-202(a) (1987) provides: A person commits the offense of breaking or entering if for the purpose of committing a theft or felony he enters or breaks into any building, structure, vehicle, vault, safe, cash register, money vending machine, product dispenser, money depository, safety deposit box, coin telephone, coin box, or other similar container, apparatus, or equipment. We agree with appellant that there was no evidence that either the change machine inside the cabinet or the coin machine on the south wall had been broken into. Officers Helms and Mallory testified as to what they found at the scene, but neither supplied evidence of entry. The sum and substance of their testimony was that the cabinet door lock was pried loose and the coin machine bore scratch marks. The parties stipulated to the fact that the left side of the coin machine was bent outward, but there is no indication that that stipulation, which seems to have been related to the suppression hearing, was presented to the jury. We believe from the wording of the statute a violation occurs when a container of the sort described in the statute is sufficiently broken or altered so that the contents or inner works of the device become accessible to entry of any kind. Whether coins or money are actually removed is irrelevant. We do not regard mere scratch marks on a machine as constituting a violation. Even when we give the evidence its highest and strongest probative force there is nothing from which to conclude that a breaking had occurred cognizable under the statute.