A former Brookhaven mayoral candidate has been charged with grand larceny in the theft of three mattresses reported missing Thursday from T.H. Perkins Furniture Co.

Joe Poole, 45, of 151 W. Enterprise St., was arrested at 3:28 p.m. Tuesday and charged with grand larceny, said Brookhaven Police Chief Bobby Bell. The mattresses were recovered at Poole’s residence and returned to Perkins Furniture Tuesday afternoon.

A “Joe L. Poole Jr.,” of 151 West Enterprise, filed qualifying papers for mayor in March 2013. He ran as a Democratic candidate in the 2013 city election but was defeated in the May 7 primary. Chief Bell confirmed this was the suspect arrested Tuesday.

Joe Poole

Poole was still in the Lincoln County Jail Wednesday morning and bond had not yet been set.

An employee from Perkins Furniture spotted an Ford F-150 truck at Poole’s residence that appeared to be the vehicle recorded on surveillance video at the store and police were alerted, Bell said.

Theresia Perkins of T.H. Perkins Furniture said the mattresses were back at the store Tuesday afternoon. One of them had a torn plastic wrapper, which might have occurred when it reportedly fell off the getaway pickup truck on Highway 84 Thursday afternoon. The other two mattresses’ plastic wrappers were still intact.

Perkins said all three will only be suitable for use as floor models now.

Don Perkins of the furniture store said Thursday the two king mattresses and one queen mattress, made by Scandinavian, were valued at $6,000.

He had reported the mattresses missing Thursday after they disappeared from the store’s loading dock some time between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. A review of the store’s surveillance video showed a heavyset black man in a T-shirt and an over shirt pulled up behind the store around 2:57 p.m. Thursday in a white F-150 pickup.

The man waited about 20 minutes, Perkins said, but he finally backed up and looked at the three mattresses that were sitting on the dock. About that time two black women pulled up near the loading dock in a green Expedition.

Don Perkins said they loaded the mattresses in the pickup truck and they all left. He said a customer later told him the pickup was spotted on Highway 84 going east when one of the mattresses fell out and was loaded back in the truck.

The Brookhaven Police Department is continuing its investigation of the case.