Man Accused of Taking Tools, iPhone From Vehicles

CARTERSVILLE, GA — A Bartow County man has been arrested and charged in connection to at least two entering auto incidents reported last Tuesdauy on Crestbrook Drive SW in Cartersville.

A deputy with the Bartow County Sheriff's Office was dispatched to the first home around 7:17 a.m. April 3 and met with a woman who said her 2012 white GMC Terrain was entered and items were removed "without her permission," according to the incident report.

The resident said she parked her vehicle in her garage around 8 p.m. Monday, April 2 and when she returned to her car around 6:30 a.m. Tuesday, she noticed her car had been "rummaged through." Items taken from the car include an Apple iPhone 6, red and black Beats by Dr. Dre headphones and a Yeti cooler bag that's tan, green and orange in color.

The woman's garage door was left open and her vehicle was unlocked, according to the incident report. About 45 minutes later, another deputy responded to a separate call of an entering auto at a home on Crestbrook Drive SW. At this residence, a woman told the deputy that sometime after 8:30 p.m. Monday, someone opened a tool box that was sitting on her husband's truck.

The truck was parked in front of the house and when she came outside around 7:45 a.m. Tuesday, she saw the box open and some items missing. Items stolen include a blue tackle bag with fishing lures and a Stanley 181-piece tool set, the report notes.

"She also stated that there were new scratches on the tailgate that had not been there before," the deputy said about the vehicle, a 2006 beige Dodge Ram 1500. The resident also said there was a handprint on the side of the truck bed and that her neighbor had a surveillance camera aimed at her home.

The sheriff's office eventually charged 29-year-old Matthew Wesley Scroggins of White with one count each entering auto, burglary, theft by taking and theft by receiving. Scroggins was booked into the Bartow County Jail on April 3 and remains held with a $23,350 bond.

(For more news like this, find your local Patch here. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app; download the free Patch Android app here)

Photo: Matthew Wesley Scroggins. Credit: Bartow County Jail