Two Arrested for Thefts from Storage Units

On Wednesday, East Ridge police arrested a couple they believe is responsible for burglarizing storage units in the area.

According to booking records from the Hamilton County Jail, Ricky Houston Barnett, 41, of a Thrasher Pike address, and Jennifer Daisy Murray, 43, who is homeless, are being held in the jail under probation violation charges.

Authorities said that officers responded to the Rodeway Inn on Ringgold Road in regard to suspicious parties who checked in using false information. Officials said that police had previously identified the couple as being involved in area storage unit thefts.

Barnett and Murray were in room 359 of the motel. They were both arrested on outstanding warrants. According to the press release, a firearm stolen from Chattooga County, and property taken from a storage unit in Ringgold were identified inside the room and secured.

According to the press release, East Ridge, Chattanooga and Catoosa County, Ga. authorities obtained a search warrant for additional stolen goods. Police recovered numerous articles found to have been stolen out of Chattanooga and Catoosa County.

Authorities said the investigation is continuing and additional charges are pending. The press release states that a portion of the recovered property is pending owner identification.

About Dick Cook

Dick Cook has lived in East Ridge since the Kennedy Administration when his parents bought a house on Marietta Street. Dick graduated from ERHS in 1976 before going on to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga where he studied Political Science. Dick worked for the Chattanooga Free-Press and the Chattanooga Times Free Press for 22 years. Free-Press Sports Editor Roy Exum plucked him out of production in 1989 and gave him a job as a sports reporter. Dick covered everything from prep sports to the whitewater events on the Ocoee River for the 1996 Olympics. When Chattanooga's two paper's merged, he became the Crime Reporter covering both the Chattanooga Police and Fire Departments. He was among reporters who were honored by the Associated Press for the TFP's coverage of the 2002 fog-shrouded crash on I-75 in Catoosa County, Dick and his wife, Cathy, live on Marlboro Avenue where they are seen frequently chasing around their three grandsons.