Orange Police Officer N.R Medina caught two men stealing a lawn mower early Thursday while he was patroling in the Oak Creek Village subdivision.
He reported he was in the 4900 block of Oak Valley Drive about 2:30 a.m. Thursday when he saw a darkened gray 1998 Buick parked in a driveway. A man was sitting in the driver’s seat and another man was standing outside the car. The officer saw the man outside put something into the back seat of the car.
Medina said the man standing outside “quickly” got inside and the car drove away. He turned around and followed the car. He stopped it on Meeks Drive at Clark Lane for traffic violations of running a stop sign and making a turn in the center of the roadway.
After stopping the car, he saw a push lawn mower in the back seat. Police called the resident living at the Oak Valley house and he reported his lawn mower which was on the side of the house was missing.
Police arrested Kenneth Wayne Thompson (left) of Orange and Terrence P. O’Sullivan of Hartburg. In addition, police found three rocks of crack cocaine in a pill bottle in the pocket of one of the men.
Medina reported the owner of the lawn mower came to where officers had stopped the men and identified the lawn mower as his.
The two men face charges of a the state jail felony of theft with two prior convictions. Thompson also faces a charge of possession of a controlled substance.
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