MEMPHIS, Tenn. — UTHSC campus police say a gentleman painted his total vehicle with black spray paint and connected drive-out tags, but that didn’t prevent them from connecting the vehicle to a current auto element theft at the college.
UTHSC law enforcement reported Steven Reynolds, 29, was arrested following just one of their officers noticed his car or truck in the parking good deal of the Motel 6 on Pauline Avenue.
The officer said he saw Reynolds attaching a drive-out tag to a 1996 Toyota Avalon and noticed the motor vehicle experienced identical markings and scratches as an Avalon employed in a catalytic converter theft in the Hamilton Eye Institute garage previous Tuesday.
Law enforcement claimed Reynolds advised them he had just obtained the Avalon and acquired the generate-out tags from anyone keeping at the motel.
UTHSC Police explained the Avalon appeared to be freshly painted with black spray paint, and they discovered battery-operated cutting instruments in the back of the car or truck.
The campus law enforcement officers explained they located other burglary tools inside of his motel space.
The officers reported surveillance online video furnished by Motel 6 also showed Reynolds driving into the motel whole lot a few minutes right after the theft at the UT parking garage. The garage on Madison is much less than a fifty percent-mile absent.
Just after Reynolds was taken into custody, UTHSC law enforcement say he admitted he had stolen catalytic converters in the previous, but reported he did not steal the a single at the UT garage.
Catalytic converter thefts have been on the rise across the country. The burglars are soon after the important metal inside of, truly worth up to $1,200 an ounce.
The price for the victim to replace the catalytic converter is about $1,500.
Reynolds has been billed with theft of assets and altering, falsifying, or forging car plates.
