Walton County Sheriff’s Deputies are still busy working through stolen property that was discovered at a chop shop Monday following a six-month investigation. Denny Maurice Latimore was arrested after property at 2470 Youth Monroe Road was raided. He is currently being held in Walton County Detention Center charged with operating a chop shop. Officials say more arrests are expected.
Items recovered Monday at a chop shop on Youth Monroe Road in Walton County. Photo courtesy of Walton County Sheriff’s Office.
Items recovered Monday at a chop shop on Youth Monroe Road in Walton County. Photo courtesy of Walton County Sheriff’s Office.
According to Sgt. Damien Mercer with the Walton County Sheriff’s Office Criminal Investigation Division, once the property from this location has been catalogued, it is expected to be valued at somewhere in the region of $150,000 to $200,000. Officials then hope to match up as much of it as possible with people who have reported their property stolen.
“It is going to take a little longer than we first thought though because of the sheer volume,” Mercer said. “Once we have a list, we will be contacting people whose property has been recovered.”
Mercer said they will match up serial numbers of items recovered with those of items reported stolen where they can. Officials caution, however, that many of the recovered items are from outside of Walton County.
“We’ve got stuff stolen from Walton, Gwinnett, Dekalb, Athens, Clark County, Newton, Rockdale and as far away as Knoxville, Tennessee,” Mercer said. “The lawn mower we have is from Knoxville, Tennessee. We do have some weed eaters stolen from a local church and some from a landscaping company down on Norcross Lane, but we haven’t yet had time to contact any of the victims.”
Mercer said if anyone filed a report that included serial numbers, the information would have been filed with the Georgia Crime Information Center and could be matched with recovered items. Many of the items, however, are in pieces. Heavy equipment was brought in to dig up pieces that were buried in the back yard.
Heavy equipment was brought in by Walton County Sheriff’s Office to recover stolen property at a chop shop in Walton County. Photo courtesy of Walton County Sheriff’s Office.
“We have eight F250 or 350 trucks – a mix of both – and we have a 1984 Chevrolet truck, that is drivable, that was pierced together,” Mercer said. “We have a Bobcat TL 180, which is a skid-steer loader. From Harbor Freight we have brand new four jacks in a box, welding leads and for Esco Industrial out of Athens we recovered three of those big job boxes that they put all of their welding equipment into.”
Mercer said the vehicles were stolen from all over the metro area. Some were chopped up and VIN numbers removed to enable some of the stolen vehicles to be sold with “clean” tags.
“So basically you have two victims,” he said. “The person who had the vehicle stolen and then the person who purchased what he thought was a good deal.”