A Summerfield man is behind bars after being accused of stealing the catalytic converter off his parents’ vehicle.
Marion County sheriff’s deputies on Tuesday responded to a residence in the 14100 block of S.E. 60th Avenue and spoke with the victims. They said the catalytic converter, valued at $1,200, was missing from their 2001 silver Chevy 2500 pickup truck, which was parked in their driveway. They said one of their neighbors had heard the sound of a metal pipe being cut off the vehicle and another one had observed a white male lying underneath the SUV, a sheriff’s office report states.
One of the neighbors told sheriff’s deputies that he was working in his yard at about 11 a.m. when he saw the victims’ son, 30-year-old Timothy Randall Sanderson, standing near the vehicle. He said he heard the sound of metal being cut and saw a gray tarp on the ground near the vehicle. The neighbor also said he didn’t think anything was unusual and believed Sanderson was just working on the vehicle, the report says.
Another neighbor said sometime after 1 p.m. she saw a white male lying on the ground under the passenger side of the victims’ pickup with “vehicle parts” next to him. When asked if she could identify the man, she said she believed it was Sanderson, “but did not want to say for sure,” the report says, adding that the witness said the person was an occupant of the residence and not either one of the victims.
Deputies responded back to the residence on Wednesday after finding out that Sanderson was there. They discovered that he was wanted in connection with unpaid child support and he was taken into custody and transported to the sheriff’s office’s South Multi District Office.
After being read his rights, Sanderson initially denied removing the catalytic converter from the SUV but later admitted that he cut it off the pickup and sold it. He also claimed he is suffering from a “serious” heroin addiction, the report says.
Sanderson was taken into custody and transported to the Marion County Jail, where he was charged with larceny/grand theft, dealing in stolen property and a writ of bodily attachment for child support. He was being held on $7,000 bond on the new charge and no bond on the child support issue and his next court date hasn’t yet been set, jail records show.