FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE…
Thursday, October 2nd, 2014
Sugar Valley Man Arrested For Theft of Heavy Equipment After Stolen Mechanical Tree Trimmer Becomes Stuck in Septic System at Suspect’s Home
Sheriff Mitch Ralston Reports:
On September 24th, deputy sheriffs received a report of a heavy duty, mobile tree trimming vehicle having been stolen from a parking lot of a local business in the Sugar Valley community. This piece of equipment was being used by a contractor from Lawrenceville, Georgia in the clearance of right-of-way areas for utilities providers in the vicinity. The contractor had been working in the area for several weeks. Detectives assigned to the case reviewed video evidence from a nearby security camera and quickly developed a suspect. The trail led about 100 yards away to a private residence, where the detectives found the missing heavy equipment, mired in the backyard, sunken to it’s axle in the home septic system. Detectives assigned to the case discovered the equipment rather easily, and said that “it would have been extraordinarily difficult to conceal the stolen property, given it’s size.” The perpetrator apparently used the device to cut and stack his own wood. Some of the wood had been burned, but detectives cannot speculate if this was an effort to destroy evidence. Detectives rapidly identified the perpetrator as one Richard Franklin Kinsey, age 57, of 136 Pocket Road, Sugar Valley, and issued a warrant charging him with (felony) Theft by Taking and Burglary in the Second Degree. The stolen tree trimmer was returned to the victim. Kinsey remained at large until today (October 2nd) when he was apprehended after abandoning a running lawnmower he was operating near another private residence in Sugar Valley upon seeing a deputy sheriff. After a short foot pursuit with the deputy, Kinsey was arrested without further incident and lodged in the county jail.
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