Man steals jar for drowned Macon girl from a gas station

Days after a Macon child tragically drowned in a Florida pool, a crook stole from a Macon gas station a jar of donations meant for her family.

It was just after midnight Saturday morning when the man, bearded with a mustache and two teardrop tattoos under his right eye, took the donation jar from the counter of Flash Foods at the corner of Heath and Thomaston roads, according to an incident report from the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office.

The jar contained $50, the report said, money that was meant for the family of Hailey Stanley, a 4 -year-old from Macon who was pronounced dead last Thursday after drowning in a hotel pool at a resort in Daytona Beach, Florida.

The identity of the thief was discovered Monday after a manager reviewed the surveillance tapes with a deputy. The man has not yet been charged with the theft.

Monroe County sheriff’s investigator Chris Landers said he recognized the man on the gas station’s surveillance footage as the same man who’d recently stolen a debit card from the thief’s own grandmother and used it for a $28.49 at the same gas station. The store manager recognized him, too, Landers said.

“He’s got some pretty distinguishing features,” Landers said of the thief who was wearing one earring in his left ear at the time of the latest heist.

This story was originally published June 7, 2016 at 4:02 PM with the headline "Man steals jar for drowned Macon girl from a gas station."