Indiana pair arrested with stolen vehicle

Published 2:01 pm Thursday, April 20, 2017

An Indiana pair has been apprehended at the Walmart parking lot following the Greenville Police Department’s second sting operation in as many weeks.

Jacob Dewitt, a 32-year-old white male, and Taylor Townsend, a 21-year-old white female, have been charged with first-degree receipt of stolen property after an undercover officer discovered the duo with a vehicle that was listed as stolen from Milton, Fla.

At around 6 p.m. Wednesday evening, authorities received a call from the caretaker at Sherling Lake Park in reference to a suspicious white male individual.

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“Officers responded to the park and found that the suspicious person had already left,” said Greenville Police Department chief Justin Lovvorn.

“The caretaker gave officers a description of the vehicle that the suspect was driving, and a short time later officers located a vehicle matching the suspect vehicle description in the Walmart parking lot.”

Upon arriving to the scene, authorities discovered that the vehicle was unoccupied. Officers checked the vehicle’s registration, at which point it was revealed that the vehicle had been reported as stolen.

“Officers then set up a sting operation in order to place the suspect in custody with as minimal risk to the public as possible,” Lovvorn continued.

“An undercover officer located and tracked the suspect’s movement inside Walmart, and then took him down when he returned to his vehicle.”

That suspect, Dewitt, and his female accomplice, Townsend, have both since been placed in the Butler County Correctional Facility.

Other charges are pending from Florida, where the vehicle was originally stolen from.