Detectives with the Coffee County Sheriff’s Office are reporting the arrest of a local man after receiving reports from several victims that they had bought a car shelter. However, when they went to get the shelter, they discovered it did not belong to the seller.
The victims reported they heard an advertisement on a local radio venue where the car shelter was reported to be for sale. When they made contact with the seller, they were given a price for the shelter. The victims stated they met the seller at different local parking lots and paid him for the shelter.
The shelter was on property that had been listed with a real estate company for sale and the home was currently vacant.
The seller was later identified by Detectives as 19-year-old Jonathan Cecil Pruitt. Warrants were obtained on Pruitt for theft by deception.
Pruitt turned himself into detectives on Feb. 9. The shelter, however, had been taken down and removed by one of the persons that had paid Pruitt for it. It was later located and has been returned to the property.
Pruitt is currently on probation and is incarcerated in the Coffee County Jail, charged with four counts of theft by deception.