Woman Caught With Stolen Items Outside Norcross Burglary

A woman was arrested for theft by receiving in the Norcross area after police found her in a car parked outside a residential burglary with stolen items from the home.

According to the Gwinnett County Police report, an officer responded to the incident, as reported by a neighbor, on the 1500 block of Silver Lake Drive near Singleton Road on a Wednesday night this month. 

The complainant said two men emerged from the back of the home with many items and got inside a white passenger car. The suspects then fled toward Singleton Road, according to the caller, but the car returned. 

The officer saw an occupied white Toyota Camry that had its lights off near the burglarized home. He spoke with the driver, a 28-year-old Gwinnett woman, who was the only person in the vehicle.

A white pillowcase was standing up in the rear passenger seat, and it appeared to be full of items. Dispatch informed that the suspects had reportedly fled on foot into the woodline once they saw the officer, and they were possibly carrying pillowcases. 

Back to the driver, she told the officer that the car belong to her friend, who gave her permission to use it. The driver said that she didn't live in the area and was looking for Sugarloaf Lane. Having worked the Norcross area for several years, the officer told her that he doesn't know of a nearby street by that name.

Because she was supposedly lost, she parked on the side of the road with her lights off as she attempted to use her phone to find the street. The officer pointed out that she was in the back of a neighborhood, which is an inconvenience since she's not close to the main road. She didn't know the numbers in the address she was trying to find, and she said she was hoping to recognize it by sight. The officer pointed out again the plan's flaw, that it would be difficult if she could not even remember the street by sight.

The officer told her why he was in the area, and she denied participating in the burglary and that she was by herself. The officer inquired about the pillowcase, and she said it was the car owner's. She said she didn't know what was in the pillowcase and didn't want to know because the car owner was dealing with a violent ex-boyfriend, so she didn't give permission to the officer to go through it. 

At the officer's request, the woman called the car owner to confirm the details. The owner said that she had given permission to the driver to use the car, but the pillowcase was not hers.

The phone disconnected, so the officer called the car owner from his phone and asked for her permission to go through the pillowcase. She granted him permission, and the officer discovered several items in it, including a safe.

The victim returned home and said the items belonged to him, but it didn't include everything that was missing. But when the car owner arrived to collect her car, she found an unknown silver suitcase on the floorboard of the front passenger seat, and it contained the other stolen items.

The driver of the vehicle was arrested for theft by receiving stolen property. She admitted that the pillowcase had been put in the car by one of the suspects. She concocted the story about trying to find Sugarloaf Lane because she had a feeling the property was stolen. She apologized for lying, but she denied knowing she was taking them to commit a burglary. She had no idea where they fled to, she told police.

The neighbor told police that the men were either white or Hispanic and were wearing light clothing.

Another officer checked the area for the suspects and found a suspicious man who looked like he had been in the woodline, but after he was questioned at the scene, he was released. 

Inside Police Reports runs regularly every week. The information is based solely on police incident reports provided on request.

See also: 

• Craigslist iPhone Ad Turns Into Armed Robbery for Norcross Man
• Norcross Car Wash Robbed After Job Inquiry
• Mojitos Restaurant Reports Cash Taken in Burglary

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