A Manassas man who was found guilty last month of mail theft, petit larceny and entering a property to damage is back in the Alexandria jail after being charged with shoplifting and two counts of petit larceny.
On June 12, the Alexandria Police Department received multiple calls from Old Town residents that packages were stolen from their front porches by a man driving a white Jeep with Virginia tags. The thefts included a package with less than $50 worth of items stolen from a front porch in the 700 block of S. Royal Street, two lamps and chairs valued at more than $600 from a porch in the 700 block of S. Fairfax Street, six packages valued at $200 taken from a front porch in the 500 block of S. Washington Street, and two lamps valued at $100 taken from a porch in the 500 block of Duke Street, according to a recently released search warrant affidavit.
An investigating APD officer then called Ourisman Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram of Woodbridge, and a service manager said that the suspect was having a vehicle serviced and was using the white Jeep as a loaner, according to the affidavit.
The service manager also told APD that the vehicle the suspect was having serviced, a silver Jeep, was “also filled with packages as well as various prescription medications with other people’s names on the bottles,” according to the affidavit.
“One of the packages she could see had an address in Old Town Alexandria,” the affidavit said.
APD tracked down the suspect by using APD’s Flock license plate reader database and found the suspect inside the white Jeep near Route 1 and Potomac Avenue.
“Your affiant responded to the area, located the vehicle, and conducted a traffic stop,” according to the affidavit. “In plain view, multiple packages/items were observed inside the vehicle with various individuals names/addresses on them. The lamps and chairs were also observed inside the vehicle.”
The suspect admitted to police that he stole the items “because he was addicted and stated he would return them,” according to the affidavit.
On Monday (July 20), the suspect was found guilty of mail theft, entering a property to damage and petit larceny, all Class 6 felonies. The mail theft charge was dismissed, and he received a suspended sentence of 120 days in prison for the petit larceny charge with one year probation and a suspended sentence of 120 days and one year probation for entering a property to damage.
The suspect was later arrested on July 3 for shoplifting less than $1,000 in merchandise (a Class 1 misdemeanor) on June 26, and two counts of petit larceny. He is currently being held without bond and goes to court on Aug. 21.
