Alleged mower thief caught in Jasper


Randy Justin Brown (Courtesy Photo)

POPLAR SPRINGS     - A Walker County man faces first degree theft charges after trying to force entry into a residence and stealing a lawn mower while possibly being connected to an ongoing break-in spree of residences in the area.
Randy Justin Brown, 34, of the Rosehill community, has been charged with theft of property first degree and criminal mischief first degree after an incident was reported to the Winston County Sheriff’s Office in late December, Investigator Josh Edwards said.
The sheriff’s office received a call on December 23, from a victim in the Poplar Springs area off Highway 195, stating the back door to their residence was damaged in an attempted burglary and that an Ariens Ikon zero-turn mower, valued at $5,000, had been stolen from an outbuilding, Edwards stated.
Investigators said that Brown had attempted to both pry and kick the back door open, but was unsuccessful, so he allegedly went to the outbuilding and drove the lawn mower off the property to a trailer, where it was loaded, Edwards said.
“There was extreme damage done to the victim’s door and door frame,” Edwards pointed out, adding the damage estimate was around $2,601.
Edwards emphasized the reason an arrest was made in this case was due to the victim having security cameras, which gave investigators an identification of the subject.
“We need more residents with cameras,” Edwards stressed. “(The cameras)  caught him driving the lawn mower off the property. He drove it off the road and into a church parking lot, loaded it up from there and was gone.”
Although the security camera footage showed Brown on the lawn mower, it did not actually show the vehicle he used to drive off with the trailer hauling the mower, investigators indicated.
“The suspect was wearing identical clothing approximately three to four hours later in Walmart in Jasper,” Edwards pointed out.
Security footage from Walmart showed a white male wearing headphones and a dark-colored hoodie with white writing on the right chest pocket in the store, where the theft victim’s wife is employed, according to investigators.
“She had seen the pictures (from security surveillance) of him stealing the lawn mower, then she saw him in Walmart, her place of work,” Edwards pointed out.
Ironically, one of the Winston County Sheriff’s Deputies, Cpl. Greg Warren, was also in Walmart at that time, according to Edwards.
Brown was allegedly in the process of shoplifting some items from the store, including a hat and sunglasses, which he had placed in his hoodie pocket, according to Warren.
Warren, who was shopping in Walmart with his family, was accompanied by a Jasper Police officer in approaching Brown inside the store, Warren said.
“He was in the same clothes when he took the lawn mower,” Warren observed.
Brown denied having taken the lawn mower, then was shown pictures from security surveillance of him on the lawn mower, Warren stated.
However, Brown continued to deny that he was the same person in the security surveillance stealing the lawn mower, investigators said.
The security footage was so clear  it even showed the rings Brown was wearing, which he also had on when law enforcement approached him at Walmart, law enforcement stated.
Warren then asked Brown what was inside the pocket of his hoodie, to which Brown told law enforcement that a hat, which still had a Walmart price tag attached, was his hat, Warren recalled.
Jasper Police took Brown into custody on the store theft charges and took him to jail in Walker County, where he made bond and was released, according to Edwards.
The Winston County Sheriff’s Office then issued a warrant for Brown’s arrest relating to the theft charges in locally and found him at a Black Pond residence off County Road 8, where he was taken into custody, Edwards continued.
“I want to first thank the victim for contacting me, the victim of the lawn mower theft, for telling me there’s traffic coming in and out of a (possible) narcotics location that we had been watching, where the suspect had also been hiding,” Edwards said.
While law enforcement were surveying this residence, they saw Brown come out of the front door, which gave them probable cause to take the suspect into custody, according to Edwards.
“There is still investigation ongoing from other thefts in the area,” he said, adding these thefts are also in the Poplar Springs area.
“I really wish we could have gotten the property back for the victim,” Edwards added.
“But the victim had the cameras, the proactive police work, being able to identify the suspect and get charges,  I hope this gives a little closure to the victim, knowing the suspect got arrested and charged with the theft of his property,” Edwards stated.


*When a defendant is charged with a crime, the charge is merely an accusation until or unless proven guilty in a court of law.

 

 


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