Traffic stop leads to suspect in Brookhaven home burglary
When a Brookhaven police officer stopped a Ford Expedition with a concealed license plate about 1 a.m. Thursday, the officer had no idea that the man behind the wheel allegedly swiped a flat screen television from a residence just minutes earlier.
The officer, who made the traffic stop at Ashford Dunwoody Drive near Harts Mill Drive, spotted the TV in the back of the SUV, Brookhaven spokeswoman Megan Matteucci said in a press release.
The driver, Horace Napier of Decatur, said he was on the way to install it at a friend’s house. That’s when the officer received a call that a home on Durden Drive had just been burglarized, Matteucci said.
Investigators confirmed the TV was taken from the home and found burglary tools as well as a ski mask during a search of the Ford Expedition, she said.
Napier, 51, was arrested and taken to the DeKalb County Jail. He remains there on charges of burglary, driving with an expired tag and concealing a license plate, Matteucci said.
“It is proactive traffic stops and good police work like this that sets an example for all of our officers,” Chief Gary Yandura said.
About the Author
Rodney Thrash is the morning breaking news coach for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He has been with the paper since November 2013.
