Arrest Made In Air Conditioning Unit Theft In Dalton

November 29, 2011

Arrest Made In Air Conditioning Unit Theft In Dalton posted November 28, 2011 Officers from the Dalton Police Department arrested Lisa Renee Skinner, 43, of 1766 Spring Place Smyrna Road in Chatsworth on Saturday afternoon on charges stemming from the theft of an air conditioning unit from a local business earlier Saturday morning. Ms. Skinner was charged with felony theft by taking and also possession of drug paraphernalia and crossing the guard line with a controlled substance after a crack pipe was discovered on her person at the jail. The incident happened on Saturday, just before 8:30 a.m., when officers were dispatched to investigate a call of someone cutting wires outside of the Tienda Ruiz at 238 Springdale Road. When officers arrived, they found the business deserted. When the owner of the business arrived, he reported that one of his outside air conditioner units was missing. As officers investigated, the Whitfield County 911 center received a call from a woman who identified herself as Lisa Skinner saying that she was worried about getting in trouble for picking up cans. When dispatchers asked if she knew who had been out at the Tienda Ruiz, the caller said that she had been, but was only picking up cans. The caller was uncooperative as dispatchers tried to investigate further. After getting this report, officers met with a witness who drove up to speak with them at the scene. The witness said that his wife was the first person to see the suspect cutting wires outside of the business, and told him about it. The witness drove to the scene and saw a white female cutting wires by an outside A/C unit. The witness reported that when the suspect saw him, she got into a white Ford Ranger pickup truck and fled towards Hamilton Street. The suspect followed her until she reached Glenwood Avenue and was able to get a partial tag number (BTB 695) which he gave to officers. Officers ran a check on Lisa Skinner in the department’s records system and found a prior arrest from a traffic stop in which she was driving a white Ford Ranger. The tag number on that vehicle (BTB 6951) matched the partial tag number provided by the witness. Officers put out a BOLO (Be On Lookout) for the suspect’s truck. Whitfield County deputies reported sighting the truck parked at Salem Baptist Church at 1448 Pleasant Grove Drive. An A/C unit was in the bed of the truck. Dalton officers met with the deputies at the church, and had the owner of Tienda Ruiz meet with them to identify the A/C unit. He was able to confirm that the unit in the truck was the unit missing from his business. Officers had the truck towed. After towing the truck, officers met with the witness in the case and showed a photo lineup which included a booking photo of Lisa Skinner. The witness identified her as the person he saw at the Tienda Ruiz. Later, Ms. Skinner again called the 911 dispatch center, but disconnected each time that dispatchers attempted to connect her with an officer. They called back and connected her with an officer who spoke with her. He arranged to meet with Ms. Skinner at a service station. She agreed to be interviewed by officers at the Police Services Center. After the interview, Ms. Skinner was arrested and taken to the Whitfield County Jail. At the jail, female booking deputies found a glass pipe concealed on her person which was burned at both ends in a manner consistent with pipes used to smoke crack.