An Athens man arrested Monday afternoon on burglary charges told police he traded stolen items from a storage unit for drugs, an official said.

Athens Police Chief Floyd Johnson said his department received a call earlier this month about a storage unit burglary at Country Living Apartments on U.S. 31 South. Nine guns and a generator were reported stolen.

The victim told police he had been gone for the day. When he returned, he found the lock on the unit had been cut and someone had been in his apartment.

Johnson said investigators Kelly Fussell and Joe McClanahan developed 49-year-old Randall Phillip Schrimsher of 13222 U.S. 31, as a suspect and obtained a search warrant for his residence.

“After talking with Schrimsher he confessed to taking the guns and generator and trading them for drugs,” the chief said.

After being booked at the Athens Police Department, Schrimsher was transferred to the Limestone County Jail. He was later released on $2,500 bond.