East Ridge police have arrested a Chattanooga man in connection with a March burglary of a home on Frawley Road.
Garrett Dean Burton, 37, of a Champion Road address, was charged with Aggravated Burglary, Theft over $2,500 and Alteration of an Item’s Permanent Number, stemming from an incident that happened in late March while the homeowners were away. Burton is scheduled to appear in East Ridge Municipal Court on Tuesday.
According to an affidavit of complaint, the homeowners filed a police report on April 4 stating that their home was burglarized between March 19 and March 24. The report states that the downstairs portion of the home had been ransacked but there was no apparent forced entry. Investigators discovered latent prints on items not routinely handled in the home. Also the downstairs shower had been used.
Among the items reported stolen were a Mossberg M-88 pistol-gripped shotgun, Pittsburg Steelers-themed sports jewelry and a coin collection valued at more than $3,000. According to a report, the victims said the only people who would have had access to the house in the homeowners’ absence were the adult children of the woman from a previous marriage. Burton was among those children.
Police interviewed a neighbor who said that he had seen one man, one woman and at least one child at the victims’ house during their absence. The neighbor said he didn’t find it suspicious because he didn’t realize the homeowners were away.
The report said that the victims’ daughter gave a statement to police that she and her boyfriend had gone to the residence to retrieve $30 that she had permission from her mother to get. When she arrived she saw a white Ford pickup truck. When she retrieved the money she encountered Burton, her brother, inside the house. According to the statement she gave police, Burton said , “If you didn’t see me, I didn’t see you.”
According to the affidavit, on April 10 investigators recovered a shotgun believed to have been stolen from the house. The investigation revealed that Burton, who was living in Polk County during this time, had borrowed his sister’s father’s pickup truck. Burton’s sister told police that when she returned to the Polk County residence on March 21, Burton was in possession of a black, pistol-gripped shotgun. Burton had handed the shotgun to another person in the house and remarked that it did not have a serial number. The report states that that person hid the shotgun inside the Polk County residence to keep it away from Burton.
Word got around among the family that Burton may have been involved in the burglary of his mother’s house. The shotgun was returned to Burton’s sister, so it could be returned to its lawful owners, the report states.
ERPD investigators met with the victims who said the shotgun matched the make, model and description of the one reported stolen, yet the serial number had been obliterated prior to its recovery. The shotgun has been submitted to the TBI in an effort to restore the serial numbers. The latent prints collected inside the burgled residence were also forwarded to the TBI.
