Police: serial burglar in custody
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MILAN, Tenn. — With a string of unsolved burglaries affecting the City of Milan, police say they have made a big break. Thanks to security footage and tips from WBBJ 7 Eyewitness News viewers, one man is behind bars. The owner of one of the stores said they have seen him before. “As soon as our manager saw the mug shot right off the bat, she said ‘yeah, he’s been in here before,” store owner John Duschl said. A familiar face now behind bars. “They started asking him about the burglaries and he wound up confessing to four of them,” Milan Police Chief Bobby Sellers said. Police say back in September, Gary Smith,44, was caught on camera burglarizing the four businesses. They say the distinctive clothing he was wearing helped bring him in Wednesday night. “The video did give us a good clothing description,” Chief Sellers said. “Some of the clothing he had was not clothing you see everyday.” Police said Smith got away with more than $2,000 in cash from the businesses. One of the owners said he is happy smith was caught so quickly. “They told me sometimes these can take up to a year to solve and look where we are now,” Duschl said. “It’s January and they’ve got him.” Two of the businesses put up a $1,000 reward to find the burglar. They said because no one turned Smith in, they will now donate the money to the Milan Police Reward Fund. “So now, if anyone does what he did they’re going to have that in the back of their head,” Duschl said. “They have a bounty for people who do what I’m getting ready to do.” With burglaries down across the board, Chief Sellers said he is looking to the public to help them out. “They’re down just a little bit,” Sellers said. “We may just be using the media and the public to help solve these burglaries a little more than we used to.” Chief Sellers said Smith also confessed to having a drug problem which he said may have been a motive to the burglaries.
