Burglary On City Property Investigated

Police in Toccoa are investigating a burglary last week on city property.

According to Toccoa Police Chief Tim Jarrell, it happened at the city gas shop on Locust Street sometime between 5:30 p.m. on July 22 and 8 a.m. on July 23.

“Someone entered the grounds, broke into one of the buildings,” said Jarrell. “They cut some leads off some welding machines, took some brass fittings, a generator, an air compressor, and stole an older city of Toccoa gas truck.”

Jarrell said the suspect or suspects then used the gas truck to make their get-away from the property.

“They drove the pick-up truck to the edge of the property of the gas shop and ran through the fence at the corner of the gas shop and Morgan Concrete,” said Jarrell. “When they did so, they damaged the vehicle in some way. They damaged the undercarriage of the vehicle, which caused them to leak some oil and other fluid. We were able to track that to a location on Rock Quarry Circle, where there was an abandoned house. After checking the location, we were able to recover almost all of the items that were taken, except for the vehicle.”

Jarrell said that Toccoa Police, with the assistance of the Stephens County Sheriff’s Office, were then able to find the vehicle nearby on Rock Quarry Circle.

He said that tracking dogs from Lee Arrendale were brought in at that point, but could not pick anything up.

According to Jarrell, all of the items were recovered.

The chief did say police believe more than one person was behind this burglary.

“We do not believe this was one individual,” said Jarrell. “We believe there was more than one individual responsible for this. Two spools of wire were taken and they were so heavy that when we recovered them, we had to have a tractor come to pick them up.”

Also, Jarrell said police that whoever committed this burglary was familiar with the area and had spent time at the abandoned house where many of the items were recovered.

The chief said that the Toccoa Police Department is seeking the public’s help in this case.

Anyone who may have information in connection to this case is asked to contact the Toccoa Police Department at 706-282-3244.