BENNINGTON -- A Pleasant Street man pleaded not guilty in Bennington District Court to stealing two dirt bikes from a locked shed.

Jerry Crandall, 20, pleaded not guilty to a felony charge of burglary and grand larceny. He was held on $5,000 bail, and is currently on probation for animal cruelty, simple assault, and resisting arrest.

According to an affidavit by Bennington Police Officer Anthony Silvestro, on Oct. 29, he responded to a home on Dudley Place for a reported burglary. Two homeowners said they had purchased a 2008 CRF230 Off Road dirt bike for $1,900 and a 2009 dirt bike of the same design for $3,100. They said the bikes had been kept in a pad locked shed, and that sometime between midnight and the early morning, the locks had been broken and the bikes taken, along with two helmets worth $200 total.

On Nov. 4, Silvestro said he was contacted by the male homeowner who provided him with Crandall's name, along with the name of another 20-year-old male. Silvestro said that he contacted the male, who said that he knew nothing of the theft, and had seen Crandall with a blue dirt bike.

Silvestro said he was again contacted by the owner of the missing bikes, who said he had found where they were located from a person he did not wish to name. He said that a man from Nassau, N.Y., had purchased one of the bikes, and that the other was at a residence in Pownal.

The bikes' owner said that he spoke with the man from Nassau, who told him that

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the bike was brought to him in a green GMC pickup truck. He said that he spoke with a person living on Beech Street in Bennington about the second bike, who helped him recover it.

Silvestro said he spoke with the man on Beech Street, who said that about a week prior, he took a young woman and a young man to a residence in Pownal. The man said he asked the girl about Crandall and another male, and the girl said that Crandall and his friend were out riding dirt bikes that appeared new.

The Beech Street man said he later heard that the two bikes had been stolen, and learned from the girl that Crandall and the other male had taken the bikes by breaking the locks on a shed and needed a place to hide the bikes, so they made up a story to tell the owner of the Pownal residence to allow for that.

The Beech Street man said that someone had shown up at his residence asking about the bikes and that he helped him recover one of them from the home in Pownal. One of the helmets was recovered from the Pownal home, according to the Beech Street man, while the other was found at Crandall's house, according to the affidavit.

Silvestro said that he spoke with the owner of the GMC pickup, who admitted to driving the truck to Nassau, N.Y., but denied having a dirt bike or involvement in the incident.

According to the affidavit, the girl issued a written statement saying that Crandall and another male talked about stealing the bikes. She said that the owner of the GMC and another male picked up one of the bikes and sold it to some one in New York.

Silvestro said a male living at the home in Pownal said that he was paid $100 to store the bikes at his home, and that they had been hidden in a field near the Plasan factory in Bennington.

According to the affidavit, one of the males who had gone to New York to sell the bike along with the owner of the GMC, said that the male living at the Pownal residence had paid him $45 to find a buyer for the bikes, and that neither of them knew the bikes were stolen.