HANSELS AND GRETEL – Similar to the clever Hansel leaving a trail of breadcrumbs to show Gretel their return path once they escaped in the Grimm’s fairytale, these three less than ingenious Livingston, TX methheads provided Polk County Sheriff’s deputies with a worn path back to their home after they broke into a Verizon cell site and stole equipment.
Three Livingston, TX residents remain in the Polk County Jail, and another is still at large after they were accused of stealing from a Verizon 200-foot self-supporting cell tower compound and also exposing a toddler to methamphetamine and fentanyl.
Polk County Sheriff’s deputies responded on June 6 to a report of a theft from the tower off of U.S. Highway 59 just north of Livingston. There they found that someone had cut through the fence around the tower and then stolen various items.
According to a Polk County Sheriff’s Office press release, deputies then followed fresh tracks through grass and then a trail through a wooded area which led them to a house where they observed items used to cut through a fence.
After obtaining a search warrant, they found a large amount of methamphetamine and fentanyl. and three of the four suspects were arrested.
One individual, William Choate, Jr., was arrested and charged with possession of a controlled substance and abandoning and endangering a child, a criminal negligence offense.
Child Protective Services took the child from the Warren Scott Lane residence.
An investigation of the theft is still underway.