Two charged in connection with stolen goods
Published 10:11 pm Tuesday, March 24, 2009
A cache of stolen items found during a search of two Suffolk homes has led to the arrests of two area men on charges of breaking and entering and grand larceny.
Steven Eugene Campbell Jr., 30, of Courtland and Matthew Aaron Hobbs, 20, of Franklin are being held without bond in the Southampton County Jail following their arrest on Monday.
The warrants came as a result of an investigation into multiple break-ins that have taken place in southern Suffolk, Southampton County and northeastern North Carolina, according to police reports.
Suffolk police displayed a large collection of items they recovered Thursday during a search of a home in the 800 block of Milford Lane and another in the 100 block of Forest Glen Drive.
Believing the items to be among the things that have been stolen in a string of more than 30 burglaries in the southern part of the city, they invited victims to stop by the police department and identify any property that might have been theirs.
Suffolk residents reclaimed some of the property, and members of the Southampton Sheriff’s Office dropped in for a look, as well. According to Detective Cpl. Richard Morris, a spokesman for that department, deputies recognized some items that had been stolen in Southampton County and connected them to the men they arrested on Monday.
In Suffolk, police continue to investigate the crimes and are “still working to match property to owners,” according to city spokesperson Debbie George.
The city’s string of burglaries has taken place mainly in the areas of Freeman Mill Road, Holland Road, Indian Trail and Longstreet Lane, police have said. Thieves have targeted items such as jewelry, cash, coins, electronics, tools and power equipment. In seven of the burglaries, sheds were burglarized.
City police secured search warrants after putting out a call for help in solving the case. Upon hearing about the burglaries, a local business owner called police, saying that two men had come to his business, attempting to sell items like those that had been listed as stolen.
The business owner provided police with a surveillance video of the men, which police released to the media. Callers soon began identifying one of the men as 22-year-old Frank Pearson V. His home was one of those searched last week.
Neither Pearson nor the resident of the other home has been charged in connection with the stolen property, but police charged Pearson with possession of heroin and possession of marijuana, based on narcotics recovered during the search.