Gadsden Police arrest man who confesses to statewide thefts

Gadsden police say a local shoplifting case turned into the arrest of a Jasper man suspected in stealing from Academy Sports and Outdoors stores throughout Alabama.  Gadsden police arrested 40 year old William Earl Barnes III,  Nov. 24 for second-degree theft of property. After questioning, Barnes admitted to stealing game cameras and other merchandise from Academy stores in Gadsden, Hoover, Prattville, Tuscaloosa, Inverness, Auburn, Huntsville and Decatur.  Investigators said Barnes would steal the cameras from the various stores by placing them in a pair of pants he tied off at the bottom. He would take them into a dressing room, then remove the cameras’ packages and stealing them by hiding them on his person as he left.  Barnes allegedly stole five cameras from the Gadsden store, but Academy told police that Barnes was suspected of taking 111 game cameras worth more than $22,000.  The investigation led Thompson to Quality Collectibles in Jasper, where the owner immediately told him he knew why they were there and led them to the back where boxes of merchandise were recovered that allegedly had been stolen by Barnes from Academy stores around Alabama and purchased by the Jasper store.  More than 400 items, including game cameras, tungsten lures, memory cards, rods, reels and fishing hooks, were recovered from Quality Collectibles. the items were worth $10,939.47.