Smith
Authorities tracked down a vehicle burglary suspect Thursday evening and found much more than a stolen cell phone.
According to a Lake City Police Department release, a cell phone was stolen from a vehicle at the Murphy USA gas station around 5:23 p.m. Thursday while the vehicle was unattended.
About an hour later, officers found a silver Jeep missing its front bumper that matched the suspect’s vehicle description at a SunStop convenience store on W. U.S. Highway 90.
The suspect, identified as 49-year-old Thomas Smith of McAlpin, was walking toward to the store before he tried to run away from the officers. Smith was wearing the same clothes as the burglary suspect, including a black “FOX” shirt, jeans and camouflage hat.
The LCPD release states that the stolen cell phone was found in the passenger seat of the Jeep. Officers also found in the vehicle a camo Mossberg 12-gauge shotgun, a SN Romarm 7.62 AK-47, a Steven model 62 semi-auto .22 caliber, a Mosing Nagant M91 bolt action 7.62 rifle, a milk crate full of ammunition, military gear, a green military ammunition can filled with more ammunition and a plastic bag of miscellaneous rifle parts.
Smith’s jeep also had a prescription bottle containing gabapentin 600mg pills and 18 orange pills stamped with “N8” that were identified as Suboxone.
Smith, a convicted felon, was transported to the Columbia County Detention Facility and charged with burglary of a conveyance, petit theft, possession of a firearm and/or ammo by a convicted felon, possession of controlled substance, possession of a prescription medicine without a prescription, resting officer without violence, possession of drug paraphernalia and violation of probation.