GPD makes arrests in Walmart robbery

Published 4:41 pm Thursday, March 21, 2013

Authorities have arrested a pair of Montgomery residents whose green thumbs turned out to be sticky fingers.

According to Greenville Police Department Lt. Justin Lovvorn, a 15-year-old male and a 21-year-old male stole more than $1,500 from the cash registers in Walmart’s garden center on March 13.

Both the juvenile, whose name authorities are not releasing due to his age, and Alonzo Blake have been charged with theft, second degree. The juvenile was arrested on Tuesday and authorities arrested Blake on Wednesday.

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Both were captured on the store’s surveillance video, and authorities were able to pull the juvenile’s fingerprints from the register.

“We were able to get pretty good view of their faces from the video,” Lovvorn said. “From the video it didn’t look like this was the first time they had done this, so we had Walmart check and see if they had any similar incidents across the state.”

The search turned up a similar robbery in Millbrook. Lovvorn later learned that the suspects had also committed similar robberies in Montgomery and Wetumpka.

“We were able to close five cases with one swipe,” Lovvorn said.

All five robberies were committed within a week.