Second suspect is arrested in mattress theft
Police have arrested a second suspect in a July 3 mattress theft from T.H. Perkins Furniture Co.
Brookhaven Police Chief Bobby Bell said Teresa Poole, 40, of 1323 Sammy Trail was arrested Thursday by police and booked into the Lincoln County Jail on charges of grand larceny.
Previously, police arrested Joe Poole, 45, of 151 W. Enterprise St., on Tuesday and charged him with grand larceny in the case. He ran for Brookhaven mayor in 2013 but lost in the Democratic primary. Teresa Poole is Joe Poole’s sister, Bell said.
The three mattresses reported missing from the store were recovered at Poole’s residence and returned to Perkins Furniture Tuesday afternoon.
Police got a break in the case when an employee from Perkins Furniture spotted an Ford F-150 truck at Joe Poole’s residence that appeared to be a vehicle recorded on surveillance video at the store and police were alerted.
T.H. Perkins Furniture’s Teresia Perkins said the mattresses, which were valued at $6,000, will only be suitable for use as floor models now.
Store owner Don Perkins had reported the mattresses missing Thursday after they disappeared from the business’s loading dock some time between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. July 3. The store’s surveillance video showed a heavyset black man driving a white F-150 pickup. and two black women in a green Expedition had pulled up behind the store.
Don Perkins said the video showed they loaded the mattresses in the pickup truck and left.
The case investigation is continuing with the police department.