A longtime volunteer at St. Ann’s Episcopal Church, Nanci Guerra, aided the Suffolk County Police Department in apprehending the suspects for a string of break-ins to the church’s donation bin for their thrift store with the help of “GPS and a car chase,” according to Fr. Jeffrey Neal Stevenson.
Since the beginning of the year, over half a dozen break-ins were documented on camera of looters taking items by breaking into donation receptacles on thrift store property.
Stevenson said the ordeal was “rough” on volunteers and made them “nervous” and was “rather demoralizing” when police were unable to witness the act despite regular patrol of the area.
“We had pictures of the cops pulling through, like, five minutes after they left,” said Stevenson.
Each of the break-ins occurred between 6 and 7:30 p.m.
“Because they always came around dusk, we couldn’t see their faces, especially with hoodies on, and the light reflected off their license plates,” said Stevenson.
To combat the situation, Guerra had purchased a GPS air tag tracker from Amazon and placed it into a decoy bag in the donation bin.
When the air tag pinged her phone to alert her the bag had left the thrift store premises, she and her husband, Dean Fox, followed the van in their car and called 911, who were able to dispatch the police to the next location en route.
“By the time the cops picked them up, their van was jam packed,” said Guerra.
“We have called over to other donation bins telling them to contact the Suffolk County Police Department. This way, there was more people involved,” said Guerra.
