East Ridge police arrested a man Wednesday afternoon after he crashed a stolen car he was driving.
Tommy E. Morgan Jr., 27, of a Trenton, Ga. address, was charged with Possession of Stolen Property, Leaving the Scene of an Accident and Driving without a license, court records show.
According to an affidavit of complaint, police were called to a hit and run traffic crash at 4000 Bennett Rd. just before 1 p.m. Officers were advised prior to arriving on the scene that the suspect vehicle, a Buick Regal, was seen turning into the East Ridge High School parking lot. The driver, who had fled from the car, was described as a shirtless, white male with short hair wearing a black shorts. The driver of the car was found a short distance away in the 4000 block of Ealy Road, where he was taken into custody without incident.
The report states that the victim of the hit and run was driving a Chevy Suburban and traveling West on Bennett Road when his vehicle was struck on the passenger side by the Buick. The victim told police that the Buick had pulled out of a driveway on Bennett when it hit his Suburban and kept on traveling.
According to the report, the Buick was reported stolen out of Ft. Oglethorpe on March 26. The driver of the Buick, Morgan, had no drivers license.
A witness, according to the report, told police that she saw a white man with black shorts involved in an argument with someone before he got into the Buick. The witness said that the driver of the Buick shot out of the driveway at full speed, striking the Suburban.
The report states that Morgan suffered injuries to his left hand and upper right thigh from the car crash.
_ Greenbriar Road: Last Sunday a thief made away with almost $50,000 in vending machines and equipment from a work building.
According to a police report, police responded to the theft and spoke with two men who reported that a tent and vending machine parts had been taken from an unsecured building behind a home. The men told police that the woman who owned the home had once been the owner of a vending machine business and recently sold machines and spare parts to one of the men. The men told police that they were going take the equipment to another location to repair the machines for a business venture.
The men told police that the last time anyone could confirm all the equipment was in the building was July 6. One of the men told police that he checked on the building on July 15 and noticed that several items were missing. The missing items included 25 coin mechanisms, 200 vending machine arms, 15 compressors, 200 t-bolt locks and 1,000 coin slots. A small tent was also taken, the report states.
All in all, the victims told police that the replacement costs for the stolen items amounted to $46,000. The victims told police that the individual parts could have been sold by the suspect for their individual parts value or as scrap metal.
At the time of the report, police did not have enough information to identify a clear suspect.
