East Ridge police have a man in custody who allegedly took a large amount of cash from Linda’s Produce late Wednesday morning.

According to Hamilton County dispatch, a call of “robbery of business” came in at 10:17 a.m. at the popular produce stand at 3306 Ringgold Road.

Early Wednesday afternoon, this reporter went to the Fire and Police Services Center to review police reports provided from the previous day. A man at the clerk’s window inside the lobby was thanking a clerk for getting his property back. The man turned out to be a representative of Linda’s Produce.

Devon Loftin

When asked about the incident earlier in the day, the man related what had happened. He said that an adult son of an employee was at the business hanging around. The suspect said he needed to use the bathroom and went inside the office area. The Linda’s employee said the man took a large amount of cash from the safe and left. The cash, the employee said, was going to be used for a produce buying trip out of state.

The employee said that he got all but $200 of the cash taken back from the theft. 

According to a press release by ERPD, police received a call from the store on a reported “employee theft.” The reporting party stated that Devon Loftin had been at the business that morning and had gone into the office area to use the restroom. After exiting the restroom, Loftin left the business immediately.

The reporting party checked the office after Loftin left and found that a bank deposit bag containing $6,000.00 was missing. During the investigation, the officer was able to recover $5,800.00 from the suspect’s mother. Loftin admitted he took the money. He was arrested for burglary and transported to the Hamilton County Jail under a $10,000 bond.