Michael Grand arrested for multi-state commercial burglaries in Lonoke County. (Photo: Lonoke County Sheriff's Office)
WARD, Ark. (KTHV) - Authorities arrested a Ward man and charged him with multiple commercial burglaries in four states, including Arkansas.
Investigators in Sallisaw, Oklahoma contacted the Lonoke County Sheriff's Office about an ongoing commercial burglary investigation.
An investigator from both offices went to a home in Ward on Jan. 2 and arrested 24-year-old Michael Grand. Further investigation showed authorities that Grand is connected to commercial burglaries and theft of property investigations in Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas.
The investigations in Arkansas consisted of Little Rock, North Little Rock, Cabot, Beebe, Stuttgart, Magnolia, and Lonoke. It is estimated the property taken from these burglaries is around $300,000. The property consisted of electronic equipment in the form of smart phones and iPads. The businesses which had been burglarized were cell phone stores.
Incident reports show a suspect, later identified as Grand, entered various Russell Cellular locations from Oct. 3, 2012 through Dec. 15, 2012. In two of those incidents, the suspect got away with more than $10,000 in cellular devices each. Grand is also accused of stealing hundreds of dollars of cash from the businesses he entered.
The reports show a similar method of entry in each Central Arkansas theft. The suspect broke into the back door of a store and often times cut wires to the store's surveillance video before the thefts took place.
Grand is being held at the Lonoke County Detention Facility.
Little Rock Police Dept., North Little Rock Police Dept., Ward Police Dept., Cabot Police Dept., Lonoke Police Dept. and other agencies helped in this investigation.
(Source: Lonoke County Sheriff's Office)