An employee of a company doing work at DeKalb Middle School during spring break has been charged with theft for allegedly stealing items from classrooms including laptops, backpacks and other personal belongings of teachers and students.
30 year old Jason Michael Stockton of Cookeville is charged with one count of theft over $1,000 and four counts of theft under $500. His bond totals $48,000 and he will be in court on April 10.
Detective Brandon Donnell of the Smithville Police Department, who investigated the case, said Stockton is an employee of Concrete Coatings of Cookeville. “Over spring break, the school had this company come in and redo some of the floors. When the teachers came back the following Monday, they noticed some things were gone. After looking into it more, they discovered a lot more things were missing including personal things taken from teacher’s desks such as cash, a watch, ring, money raised toward Relay for Life, a laser pointer and more. They looked on the (surveillance) cameras and saw workers from this company going into the classrooms, taking stuff and walking out with it,” he said.
Other items taken from the school included cases of bottled water and soft drinks, bottles of body lotion, an Ipod, and several bags of food for the backpack program.
The total value of the stolen items was estimated to be $5,770.
Detective Donnell said some of the stolen items were recovered upon Stockton’s arrest on Friday, April 4. ” We went to Stockton’s house in Cookeville and found some of the stuff in his house,” he said.
At least one other arrest may be forthcoming as a result of the investigation.
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