Four arrested in Gadsden thefts

Sandy Lee Phillips Arnold

Alex Christopher Howard

 Gadsden police have charged Four people  in connection with two August break-ins at Snead Ag, and investigators estimate about half of the stolen merchandise has been recovered.

Police said the business on W. Meighan Blvd., has been burglarized repeatedly in the past year.

On Aug. 2, two black male suspects and one white male suspect broke into the business and the alarm didn’t activate, allowing the suspects to make repeated trips back and forth taking chain saws, weed trimmers, hedge trimmers and backpack leaf blowers from the store.

Terrell Dudley

Chearlie Gerard Sawyer

On Aug. 29, there was another break-in, when a black male smashed the

glass, grabbed four chain saws and ran.

As detectives were investigating the case, detectives Detectives checked a database of pawned property. Where they discovered that one of the stolen chain saws had been pawned at a shop in Pelham. Another was found pawned in Alabaster. When detectives went to the home of a woman who pawned the items on Etowah Avenue, they found a third chain saw.

52 year old Sandy Lee Phillips Arnold,  of Brierfield, has been charged with second-degree receiving stolen property. As detectives investigated Arnold’s alleged possession of the stolen property, they were led to another suspect she allegedly got two of the saws from: 34 year old Charlie Gerard Sawyer,  of Kyle Avenue, also charged with second-degree receiving stolen property.

After further investigation police arrested  46 year old Alex Christopher Howard for second-degree receiving stolen property.

 Using a photo lineup, other suspects identified the man who initially had possession of all the stolen property as 29 year old Terrell Dudley.

Dudley earlier had been arrested  recovered property at Dudley’s Kyle Avenue address. A backpack blower and weed trimmer had serial numbers removed from the outside cover. However, when the investigators took the items to Snead Ag, serial numbers were found on the inside cover and it was determined that the property belonged to the Gadsden Parks and Recreation Department. The theft of the items had not been reported at the time the property was recovered. Dudley was charged with second-degree receiving stolen property.

after Etowah County Sheriff’s Office investigators

Based on information obtained during their investigation of the Snead Ag burglaries, Gadsden detectives charged Dudley on Oct. 3 with third-degree burglary and first-degree theft of property.