JACKSON TWP. — A Brown County man is the second person to be charged after police say he and another man broke into a former friend’s home and stole guns, jewelry, boots and a TV.
Clayton Cole Crabtree, 27, of State Road 46 East, was charged Sept. 28 with three felonies for burglary, theft and residential entry.
Brock Lynn, 23, was charged Sept. 20 with the same felonies.
The investigation against Lynn began at the end of August, reported Det. Brian Shrader with the Brown County Sheriff’s Department.
The owner of the home, in the 5400 block of Carmel Ridge Road, had left on a hunting trip Aug. 28. On Sept. 4, Shrader spoke with the owner’s mother who provided him with a list of guns that were missing.
Shrader obtained a search warrant for Lynn’s cellphone records and was able to place him in Brown County around the time of the burglary. He also found evidence that Lynn had sold some of the items to pawn shops.
The gun owner’s mother also said many pieces of jewelry — including family heirlooms — were missing from the home. The owner’s girlfriend reported finding clothes in the home that did not belong to them and that the suspects stole a pair of boots, too, the report said.
Lynn was arrested on Sept. 20 after he showed up to meet a relative to pick up a check. He confessed to breaking into the home with Crabtree, the police report said. Crabtree had told him he knew of someone who was wanting guns and that they were going to “split the deal 50-50.” He and Crabtree met a man in a parking lot in Columbus to sell some of the guns that were taken, and the rest went to Indianapolis, he said.
Lynn said he didn’t know about any jewelry that came from the home. He said Crabtree was the first person inside.
