Authorities say they’ve identified the two young men who committed a string of auto burglaries in Cody last summer.

Earlier this month, Park County prosecutors filed charges against two brothers from Texas. Gabriel Sepeda, 26, and Zachary Sepeda, 20, each face four felony counts in connection with a burglary spree that took place in June. The counts specifically allege the Sepedas stole three firearms from a pair of vehicles and briefly stole and then damaged a truck last June.

A judge issued warrants for both men on Jan. 3, but it’s unclear when they’ll appear in Park County. Gabriel Sepeda is listed in court records as a resident of Alice, Texas, with Zachary Sepeda in Lubbock. Records show Zachary Sepeda’s status is also complicated by the fact that he’s been jailed in Lubbock County on unrelated allegations.

The Cody police investigation started on the morning of June 26, when the department began receiving reports that multiple vehicles had been burglarized overnight. An affidavit from Cody Police Det. Tyler Eubanks says at least nine vehicles were entered, with items taken from six of them and a 2011 Dodge pickup stolen. The Dodge was taken from a driveway on Arizona Place and left roughly a half-mile away in the 1900 block of 16th Street, the affidavit indicates. Inside the Dodge, police found items that had been stolen from three other vehicles — a water bottle, fanny pack, purse and gun holster — while the truck’s roughly $700 radio unit had been destroyed.

In the wake of the burglaries, the affidavit indicates that vehicle owners and neighbors provided police with several useful pieces of information. Perhaps the most helpful was footage from a video camera mounted inside one of the burglarized vehicles on 15th Street. The camera captured two people entering the 2022 Ford F-150 and “clearly” showed one of them stealing something from the truck, Eubanks wrote. The owner reported he was missing a rangefinder, binoculars and a Glock 19X pistol.

Meanwhile, two Smith & Wesson firearms — a M&P 9mm pistol and a .44 Magnum revolver — were reportedly swiped from an unlocked truck on Casper Drive. Those guns would soon prove critical to the investigation just days later.

On July 7, police in Lubbock, Texas, responded to a report of gunshots and recovered both of the stolen Smith & Wessons. Gabriel and Zachary Sepeda were among a half-dozen people at the scene, Eubanks wrote, and he obtained search warrants for some of their cellphone data.

According to the detective’s summary, data from AT&T indicated Zachary Sepeda’s phone was in the area of Arizona Place around 2:30 a.m. on June 26 — which is when and where the Dodge truck was stolen. Then around 3 a.m., the cell data reportedly placed the phone near Brassy Club and Casper Drive — near where the Smith & Wesson handguns were taken and where the stolen truck was spotted on surveillance footage.

Data from Gabriel Sepeda’s carrier, T-Mobile, wasn’t as specific, the affidavit indicates, but it showed the Texan’s phone was connected to a cellphone tower in Cody throughout the night in question.

In his affidavits, Eubanks added that the brothers’ phones only registered activity in Cody “at the same date and time as the burglaries.” It all led the detective to conclude that the Sepedas were the culprits.

He signed his affidavits in early October, though the Park County Attorney’s Office didn’t file charges until Jan. 3. The Sepedas each face four felony counts: two of aggravated burglary (for allegedly stealing the firearms from the two vehicles), theft totaling $1,000 or more (for allegedly taking the Dodge pickup) and property destruction totaling $1,000 or more (for the damage to the Dodge).

The brothers are presumed to be innocent, but if they were to be convicted of either aggravated burglary charge, they would face at least five years in prison.

Court records show Zachary Sepeda is also facing three more felonies in Lubbock County, Texas, District Court. Those charges allege he used a motor vehicle without permission and fled from police just weeks before his alleged trip to Cody and committed aggravated assault with a deadly weapon just days after the late June burglaries. Court records indicate all three Lubbock County cases remain pending, with the younger Sepeda’s bond set at over $100,000.