By Jean Cole
Two out-of-towners were arrested Tuesday in connection with a burglary at a Limestone County grocery store and the thefts of a car, a pickup truck and air-conditioners from several churches, an official said.
The case began with the recent thefts of air-conditioning units from churches at the edge of Lauderdale County, said Limestone County Chief Investigator Stanley McNatt. In following up on those thefts, investigators with the Anderson Police Department and the Lauderdale County Sheriff’s Department went to the home of Matthew Dendy, 21, of 1935 County Road 95 in Rogersville and discovered some items possibly stolen on Thanksgiving Day from Good Springs Grocery, which had reported the theft of cigarettes, tobacco products and change, McNatt said. Investigators developed Dendy and Matthew Wise, 20, of 33699 Highway 99 in Anderson as suspects in the crimes.
Limestone County Sheriff’s Lt. Brad Curnutt met with the Anderson Police Chief and a Lauderdale County Sheriff’s investigator on Tuesday and recovered some of the items stolen in the Good Springs burglary. While there, officials received a call about the theft of a 2003 Chevrolet Monte Carlo from Salem Discount Food Mart, McNatt said.
“A lady who had been to the store left her keys in the ignition,” McNatt said. “When she was coming out of the store, she saw two white men getting in her car and leaving. We got a mugshot of the two suspects — Dendy and Wise — and sent it to the deputy on scene at the Food Mart, and the men were positively identified as the ones who took her car.”
Officials asked other law-enforcement agencies to be on the lookout for Dendy and Wise, and the two men were seen a short time later by police in Minor Hill, Tenn. The offenders fled on foot when approached but were apprehended by Minor Hill officers, McNatt said.
The Giles County Sheriff’s Department is holding the two men on theft charges and the Limestone County Sheriff’s Department has obtained warrants for the two men on charges of first-degree theft and third-degree burglary, McNatt said.
Limestone County officials also recovered an abandoned pickup Tuesday on Elkton Road that had been reported stolen from Lexington and is believed to have been taken by Dendy and Wise, McNatt said.
