The City of Cairo and Cairo Police are investigating the theft of two city vehicles over the weekend.
The first truck was found abandoned in a roadway down the street from the “city barn” where city vehicles are kept. The would-be thief of that 1995 Ford F-150 had crashed the truck through the chain-link fencing around the parking lot.
Fencing, a post and fence parts had become entangled underneath the truck’s rear axle and wrapped under an attached utility trailer.
It was discovered abandoned on Sixth Street S.W. at the intersection with Fourth Avenue S.w. at 6:46 a.m. Sunday.
As Sgt. Mike Carr of C.P.D. was investigating the abandoned truck, he learned that Pelham Police were involved in a vehicle chase with another City of Cairo truck. The driver of that truck had eluded Pelham Police, but soon became involved in a chase with Camilla Police.
The driver of the 2007 Ford pickup truck jumped out of the truck and ran, but Camilla Police were able to chase him down and take him into custody.
Deward Lee Waller, 17, Camilla, is charged with two counts of theft by taking, one count of criminal damage to property in the 1st degree, and one count of felony theft by receiving stolen property.
According to Cairo City Manager Chris Addleton, the 1995 modeltruck did not require keys to crank it, but a set of keys had been left inside the 2007 truck. Addleton says he has since addressed that lapse in judgement with the city’s community services director, Pat Mitchell.
