Lynchburg man turns himself in following a string of vehicle thefts

(Copyright by WSLS - All rights reserved)

LYNCHBURG (WSLS 10) -  Over the past several weeks, through teamwork and intelligence-led policing, members of the Lynchburg Police Department have been investigating a string of cases involving larcenies from vehicles, tampering with vehicles and vehicle thefts.

From  April 7th, 2016 through June 7th, 2016 there's been 114 reports of larcenies from vehicles, 15 reports of tampering with vehicles and 15 vehicle thefts.

Recommended Videos



On June 21st, 2016 as part of this investigation, Lynchburg Police Officers pursued and recovered a stolen Ford Fusion; however the driver ran and was not immediately apprehended.

On June 22, 2016,  Lynchburg Police Officers pursued and recovered another stolen vehicle, a Chevy Colorado, and apprehended the suspect. The suspect was a 17-year-old juvenile male accompanied by a 16-year-old female passenger.  The driver was charged with the vehicle theft and attempt to elude police.  The passenger was charged with grand larceny. The driver was also charged with one additional count of grand larceny and one count of petite larceny.

No one injured during these pursuits and they ended without incident.

Inside both of these recovered stolen vehicles were numerous pieces of property that were confirmed as stolen from other vehicles.

Lynchburg Police Detectives were able to use the property from these two stolen vehicles, along with additional evidence collected, to identify another suspect. This suspect was driver of the Ford Fusion, was Antoine Dishon Brown, 23 years old, from Lynchburg, Virginia.  Twenty-seven  warrants were secured on Brown for vehicle theft, larceny from vehicles and tampering with vehicles.

Brown turned himself in on July 6th, 2016. This investigation is still ongoing and additional charges are pending for Brown.

In this particular string of cases there are numerous pieces of recovered property thought to be stolen; however the owners are not known. There are also cars that have been pointed out as being victims of a larceny; however a report was not filed.

The Lynchburg Police Department has conducted similar investigations recently, as well as in years past. We have found that a large amount of the vehicles that have had items stolen from them have been left unlocked.

The Lynchburg Police Department urges people to lock their vehicles and remove all valuables. They say the most common items stolen are guns, wallets, change, GPS devices, laptop computers, tablets, gaming devices, cellular phones and many other personal items.

The Lynchburg Police Department asks that if you are a victim of one of the crimes described, that you please file a report. They says it's their goal to return the property to the rightful owner and seek the appropriate charges on the suspect.