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4 nabbed in downtown jewelry theft
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| By: THERESE APEL, DAILY LEADER Staff Writer |
September 17, 2009 |
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Brookhaven Police Chief Pap Henderson said it was the heads-up work of his department and the willing assistance of surrounding agencies that made the Wednesday arrests of four alleged jewelry thieves possible.
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Henderson said Rhynie L. Smith, 55; Michael L. Finley, 55; and Lynda M. Collins, 51, all of Baton Rouge; and Lawrence Sterling, 55, of Dallas, were booked into Lincoln County Jail on charges of grand larceny and conspiracy to commit grand larceny after an incident at Smith Jewelers on West Cherokee Street.
"We had three black males and a black female that went into Smith Jewelers, and one of them reached behind the counter to a case that was unlocked and got a tray of rings," Henderson said.
The four were apprehended on Interstate 55 mile marker 47 as they attempted to leave the county, Henderson said. He said the Lincoln County Sheriff's Department offered assistance in the hunt, and officers were stationed at each of the exits heading out of the county on Interstate 55 because there were no Mississippi Highway Patrol units available.
BPD narcotics agent and Southwest Mississippi Narcotics Enforcement Unit Deputy Commander John Douglas and Alcohol and Beverage Commission Enforcement officer John Goza stopped the vehicle in which the four were riding. The four were booked into jail around 3 p.m. Wednesday.
"We had good information telling us what kind of vehicle it was, and that it had an out-of-state tag," Henderson said. "All that information helped us and paid off, and we made the arrests."
The vehicle had a Minnesota tag, though none of the suspects are listed as being from Minnesota. How they knew about Smith Jewelers is not clear at this time, Henderson said.
"We have no idea how they knew how to get downtown or how they knew about Smith Jewelers," he said.
He said another great help to the investigation was that the store has video surveillance equipment.
Henderson said especially when information comes together as quickly as it did Wednesday, crimes like the Smith Jewelers theft will not be tolerated in his city
"This is proof that we will not put up with anything like this. When we get this much information, we're going to do our job and be forceful doing it," he said.
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©The Daily Leader 2009
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