Officers nabbed an alleged cedar thief after a deputy from the Pacific County Sheriff’s Office helped install game cameras on property owned by American Forest Management.
The property located off of state Route 105 between Raymond and Tokeland had reportedly been experiencing ongoing cedar theft.
PCSO Deputy Rafael Macintosh and another individual set up the cameras on Oct. 22. after it was noticed someone had stolen cedar on Oct. 21. The suspected vehicle involved in the crime — identified at the time as a Chevrolet truck — was spotted and photographed by an AFM employee on Oct. 21.
According to court documents, Macintosh received a text informing him that one of the game cameras that had been set up had just captured a “Chevy pickup truck with no license plate” on the property that matched the description of the culprits.
“At [10:48 p.m.], I then proceeded en route to attempt to locate the truck,” Macintosh stated in court documents. “I requested assistance from the Raymond Police Department and Shoalwater Police Departments. Officer [Ivy] Stafford, Officer [Tony] Kimball, and I drove to the gate on the 9200-line. The lock on the gate had been cut off and [the] property is posted with [no] trespassing. We turned around to check the North River Boat launch [and] the truck was not present. I checked the game camera closest to the road on the 9200-line. The camera only captured the truck entering the property, not returning out. Based on this evidence, we believed the truck was still located on [AFM] property,” Macintosh added.
During the search, officers “heard a vehicle traveling southbound on SR 105” and discovered it matched the vehicle they were trying to locate. Macintosh reportedly pursued after the truck — which also did not have a license plate — and stopped in along the roadway.
There was a load of cedar blocks in the bed of the truck.
The driver, Christoper A. Ross, 46, was instructed to exit the vehicle with his hands up and was taken into custody. Officers also located a female in the passenger seat and determined she was not involved with stealing the wood.
According to court documents, the passenger provided a written statement that said, “they were in the wood (sic), and he was getting fire wood (sic).”
Ross was arrested and booked into the Pacific County Jail for second-degree theft and second-degree criminal trespassing. He is being held in lieu of $50,000.
