NEW ORLEANS – Three thieves were caught with 52 Yeti coolers worth more than $16,000 in New Orleans East. Officers with the Houston Police Department contacted the NOPD on March 12 to inform them that a trio of suspects in dozens of reported thefts of the high-end coolers were in New Orleans. NOPD officers began searching for the suspects, and found 29-year-old Demetrius Johnson standing outside of a hotel in the 8400 block of the I-10 Service Road loading a Yeti cooler into a trailer filled with over 40 other Yetis. About a dozen more coolers were recovered, along with stolen Adidas clothing, according to the NOPD. Johnson, along with 20-year-old Anthony Jackson and 18-year-old Leon Gamble, had been targeting a national sporting goods retailer. Thirty-two coolers were stolen in Louisiana, and 20 were stolen in Texas. The three men were arrested and charged with possession of stolen property. Additional charges are likely as the investigation progresses, according to the NOPD. Detectives believe the trio was in the process of victimizing a location in the New Orleans metro area when they were arrested. All of the stolen property has been recovered and returned to the sporting goods outlets they were stolen from, according to the NOPD.