BUTLER TWP — Two men Tuesday were arraigned on charges they broke into three vehicles and stole a Kindle computer tablet.

Brent D. Kennard, 26, of Clay Township and Brandon S. Ward-Smith, 27, of Lyndora are each charged with three counts of theft from a vehicle and receiving stolen property. They also are charged with conspiracy and loitering and prowling at night.

They are being held in the Butler County Prison on $10,000 bail each.

One of the victims, who lives on Randy Drive, called police shortly after midnight Friday to report his pickup truck had been ransacked.

The owner said he spotted the suspects walking toward Vogel Road after they had taken his garage door opener from the truck and used it to open the garage door, police said.

Officers tracked the thieves’ footprints in the snow. The tracks led them to a car at a nearby home, also on Randy Drive.

That car, too, had been ransacked and a $200 Kindle stolen, according to court documents.

The officers again picked up the tracks in the snow and came to a car in the 200 block of Vogel Road. The car had been broken into but it was not immediately known if any property was missing.

Police eventually found Kennard and Ward-Smith hiding in a chicken coop in the 100 block of Dutchtown Road.

Both suspects had a “large amount of loose change in their pockets,” a police affidavit said. Kennard also had a Kindle notebook in his back pocket.

The defendants, who refused to talk to police, face preliminary hearings March 10.