Two men are in jail while another is being sought for larceny of air conditioning units after a 17-day investigation by the Lenoir County Sheriff’s Office.
Lonnie Taylor, 42, of 3305 Cypress Grove Road, La Grange, and Tyrone Newbern, 38, of 3631 Shep Road, Grifton were arrested and charged with felony larceny — among other charges — on Friday. Timothy Joe Burge, 52, of 104 S. Isler St., Kinston, has felony warrants pending service by the LCSO.
According to an LCSO press release, Detective David Felton began working a case involving a 2 ½-ton air conditioning unit valued at $3,500 that was stolen from the Grifton address where Newbern was a tenant on Aug. 6. Thieves had cut the wires and pipes from the unit before moving it.
The detective had received information from a reliable source of the identity of the thieves. The LCSO press release states that on Aug. 13, Felton purchased an AC unit — with matching serial numbers from the stolen unit — from Newbern, Taylor and Burge.
On Aug. 23, Felton purchased a second stolen Goodman AC unit, this one valued at $1,200, from Newbern and Taylor. The second unit was stolen from a N.C. 11 South residence four days earlier. Once the transaction was complete, LCSO Sgt. Walt Howard stopped the suspects in the vehicle used to transport the unit.
“This was outstanding old-fashioned police work on the part of Det. Felton,” Sheriff Chris Hill said in the statement. “Not only did he identify the suspects, Felton was able to go undercover and make purchases from the suspects, thereby recovering the property and closing the cases.”
Newbern and Taylor each received six charges, including two felony counts of larceny, two felony counts of conspiracy to commit felony larceny and two counts of possession of stolen goods. Taylor was placed in jail under a $50,000 bond while Newbern received a $25,000 bond.
Burge will be served with three warrants for felony larceny, conspiracy to commit felony larceny and possession of stolen goods.
Anyone with information about Burge is asked to call the LCSO at 252-559-6102.