A Georgia State Patrol trooper, along with a couple of Douglas police officers, did a little spring cleaning inside the warehouse at Hometown Furniture on April 5, 2025.
According to a report from the Douglas Police Department, around 12:30 a.m., officers were dispatched to the furniture store on North Peterson Avenue. They met with the store manager who said that cameras had picked up someone moving around inside the building. He could see the camera footage on his phone.
Officers saw that a window in the warehouse area had been compromised. The trooper then heard someone moving around inside the building. The officers entered the store and began searching the warehouse. According to the report, at first, they didn’t find anything or anyone. As they were about to give up the search, the trooper saw someone hiding behind a box. He asked the individual multiple times to come out. The report says that the subject, later identified as Joshua Williams, 37, of Douglas, refused. The trooper then grabbed Williams by his feet and dragged him outside, according to the report.
Williams was charged with burglary in the second degree and taken to the Coffee County Jail.