Police say a Columbus man stole a window blind, mirror, wiring and door knobs from a Brown County home on April 26.
Around 7 a.m., police received a complaint about a suspicious vehicle running, with the trunk open and no one around it, at a home in the 7200 block of Thunder Ridge Road.
Lt. Mike Moore found the vehicle sitting in the driveway with a man and woman inside. The man, Jason Brown, 42, said that he and the woman had come to the property to see about buying it. Moore reported the property is for sale, but it is a bank foreclosure and has a ‘No Trespassing’ warning on the front door.
Brown told Moore that the trunk had not been open while they were at the home. Moore reported seeing a window blind, a bucket of cut wire, a large mirror and some bags inside the vehicle. The side and back doors to the house were open, he wrote.
Brown said the couple had looked around the property, but did not go inside. He told police the mirror was from his house and the blind was in a trash can that they picked up on the way to see the property, the report said.
Det. Paul Henderson checked the home and reported that the back door had been pried open recently. He also reported that all of the door handles to the cabinets in the kitchen had been removed.
Brown and the woman were issued trespass warnings.
While checking the home, Moore and Nashville Police Chief Ben Seastrom reported seeing a blind missing from one of the bedrooms that matched the one that was in Brown’s vehicle. Henderson was able to stop Brown’s vehicle on State Road 135 North near Nashville.
During an interview with police, Brown said he did not go into the home, but that he had picked up the blind, mirror, wire and door knobs from the back porch of the home and placed them in his vehicle, according to the affidavit. The woman told police she did not go into the home and did not take any items.
After a warrant was granted, police searched the vehicle’s trunk and found a large amount of wire that had been cut, bolt cutters and a screwdriver. They also reported finding three florescent light fixtures.
Back at the property, Henderson checked the garage and found it had almost all of the wiring cut from it and there was evidence that three light fixtures had been removed, according to the affidavit.
Brown and the woman were booked into the jail on preliminary charges of theft. On April 27, Brown was formally charged with residential entry, a Level 6 felony, and theft, a Class A misdemeanor. The woman had not been charged as of press time.
