Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

By Fred Guarino

The Lowndes Signal

Hayneville Police Chief Kelvin Mitchell says a truck that recently smashed into stores with ATMs in Mosses and Hayneville is almost certainly the same vehicle. And he says that vehicle has been recovered in Hayneville.

Mitchell said the vehicle believed to have used to commit both crimes was stolen from Southern Sash Supply Company in Montgomery and is a white, 1997 GMC pickup truck, called a “dually.”

A dually is a pickup truck with dual wheels on the rear axle.

Mitchell said the Montgomery County Investigative Department is going over the truck for prints, DNA and inventory “to see if we can get something to identify who may been occupying the vehicle at some point.”

Mitchell said the struck was recovered Saturday evening, July 8^th in the “wooded area inside the town limits of Hayneville near the town park.”

He said he is 99.9 percent positive the vehicle was used in the Hayneville AG and Mosses Meat Market burglaries.

Mitchell said anyone with information should call the Mosses Police Department at 334-548-2128 or call him directly at 334-412-4611.

Jeremy Marvin of the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office earlier confirmed that an ATM machine was stolen from the Mosses Meat Market on Tuesday night, June 27.

He said, “On Tuesday evening (June 27), some unknown person or persons ran a vehicle through the rear of the Mosses Meat Market. While inside of the business, they stole the ATM machine that was inside.”

Mitchell said a break in occurred at the Hayneville AG on June 6 in which the suspects “took their truck and backed into the store the same way they did in Mosses, and they attempted to take the ATM machine.”

He confirmed information that in the Hayneville case two men dressed in black with their faces covered got out of the truck, went into the store and tried to physically rock the ATM out of the ground.

Mitchell also confirmed “Over $10,000 worth” of damages were done to the Hayneville store, that the burglars stayed in the building for about 15 seconds and “didn’t touch anything but the ATM.”

When asked if he believed the two crimes were related, Mitchel said, “I do.”

He said the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office and his Department are working together because, “We think they are tied together.”

Lowndes County Sheriff John Williams said of the two burglaries, “There is a lot of damage. It’s hurting the businesses because they are doing more damage than they are getting out of there.”

Williams said that it was possible that a crime ring is involved.

According to Mitchell, no one has been caught at the present time, and, “It is an active open investigation.”