(The following report appeared on the Batesville Daily Guard website on April 11.)
BATESVILLE, Ark. — Local workers with the Missouri & Northern Arkansas Railroad say they interrupted a burglary in progress and caught a suspect at their office after returning from an early morning run today.
Crew members Ed Richardson and Matt Ryan told police they returned to the office at 133 Lawrence St. around 1:30 a.m. to find someone going through employee lockers.
Richardson said when he and Foster arrived at the office, Foster unlocked the door and went to his pickup truck. “I walked into the depot and a man was climbing out a window,” Richardson said. “I caught the man and held him until Matt could help me. We brought him back into the depot and called 911.
Dispatchers with the Batesville 911 system said they could hear a struggle ensuing from the office and then lost contact with the caller shortly before Deputy Pat Collins arrived.
“The man got away from us, we ran after him and caught him again and held him until the police got here,” Richardson said.
Collins said when he arrived he saw the front door open and the men had a suspect, later identified as a 16-year-old juvenile, on the ground about 25 yards west of the depot office.
Collins said he placed handcuffs on the youth and put him in his patrol car prior to transporting him to juvenile detention facilities.
“As we walked to my patrol unit, he asked to be released and said he promised not to do it again,” Collins said. “The boy kept trying to get his cuffed hands in front of him and had to have another pair of cuffs attached to his belt behind his back.”
Collins said the boy also had a black container, holding several oblong pills suspected of being hydrocodone, attached to his clothing by a chain.
Entry to the building was made by stepping onto the tongue of the trailer used as an office and then climbing through a sliding window.
Evidence was gathered and photos were taken at the crime scene, according to Collins.
The juvenile has been cited with commercial burglary, possession of a controlled substance and criminal mischief.