He stole loose change from her car, then apologized; but he still went to jail

A woman who’d parked her 2010 Chrysler 300 on Bayne Street off Mumford Road in west Macon one day in mid-November saw someone breaking into the car. The culprit, who was inside the car, took off running when he noticed her. The woman got a good look at him and told the police he had stolen about $4 worth of dollar bills and loose change from the car’s center console. A Bibb County sheriff’s deputy talked to a man who was sitting nearby who’d also caught a glimpse of the thief. The deputy cruised the neighborhood near Napier Avenue and, a block or two away on Forest Avenue West, happened upon a 17-year-old who matched the suspect’s description. The teen denied being on Bayne Street earlier and said he hadn’t stolen anything. The deputy snapped a photo of him and took the picture back over to Bayne and showed it to the car’s owner. She said the teen in the picture was the person who’d broken into her car. The deputy then found the teen again and arrested him. “I asked him why did he break into the car then lie to me about it,” the deputy’s incident report noted. “I told him that everyone saw him and even the neighbor noticed him running from the car. (He) stated that his family was going through tough times and that he needed the money. He stated that he only took change. … (He) stated that he was sorry multiple times.” He was jailed on an entering-auto charge.

This story was originally published December 29, 2016 at 12:00 AM with the headline "He stole loose change from her car, then apologized; but he still went to jail."