A gun owner from Kokomo writing down the serial numbers of his weapons helped Marion and Claiborne county deputies recover 35 firearms following a break-in.
Two people have been charged with burglary of a dwelling in connection with the incident and were booked into the Marion County Regional Correctional Facility Thursday afternoon. Bond had not been set as of deadline for Alesha Nicole Turner, 24, of Hattiesburg and Arthur Ball Jr., 32, of Oak Grove.
The burglary happened July 26 in Kokomo, and Marion County Sheriff’s Office Investigator Matt Brown said the items recovered included pistols, rifles, shotguns and muzzle loaders as well as cameras, a laptop, external hard drive and ammunition.
“With the combined efforts of Claiborne County we were able to recover the weapons and make the arrests based on a critical piece of evidence: The person who they were stolen from had written the serial numbers of the guns down,” he said.
Brown said they had entered a serial number from one gun into a computer database, and Claiborne County recovered a gun and it showed up as a match.
“We went from there. We were able to develop suspects. They were taken into custody in Claiborne County. We worked with them to further the case,” he said.
Brown said Ball is also wanted on warrants from several other counties and the investigation may yield more for Marion County officials.
“There is a possibility that they are connected to more burglaries,” he said.
Brown said the owner has been notified that the guns have been recovered.
Sheriff Berkley Hall said the quick action was due to the owner of the guns having information readily accessible.
“Write your serial numbers down,” he stressed. “If we hadn’t had the serial numbers we couldn’t have developed the case.”
Caption: Marion County Sheriff’s Office Investigator Matt Brown on Thursday looks over some of the 35 stolen guns that were recovered in Claiborne County this week. The guns were allegedly taken from a Kokomo residence in a burglary Sunday. Two people have been charged in the case.
