Two men have been arrested and charged in a residential theft that was caught on surveillance video and posted to social media earlier this month.
On July 1, the Coffee County Sheriff’s Office released a video of a theft in progress and requested help from citizens in identifying the unknown persons in the video.
Officials stated Thursday that information from the community began coming in immediately, which led to the arrest of 31-year-old James Ervin Thomas of Ware County on July 2. The lawn mower that was shown being taken in the video was recovered.
The other suspect was later identified as 22-year-old Noel Matthew Barnes, Jr. of Coffee County, who was located and taken into custody Wednesday, July 8.
Sheriff’s officials stated detectives have been able to link Thomas and Barnes to four additional burglaries at this time and expect they will be linked to others.
Both Thomas and Barnes are currently incarcerated in the Coffee County Jail.
“Once again, I would like to thank the citizens of Coffee County and any others that provided information in the identification and location of these individuals,” Sheriff Doyle Wooten said. “This participation between our citizens and law enforcement will allow us to show the criminal elements that we are not going to allow them to continue to operate in our county.”
James Ervin Thomas