10/24/13 — Break-in suspect held on $500,000 bond

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Break-in suspect held on $500,000 bond

By Josh Ellerbrock
Published in News on October 24, 2013 1:46 PM

After a number of motor vehicle break-ins were reported to the Mount Olive Police Department, officers were able to arrest a suspect who later confessed to rifling through unlocked vehicles in the east side of Mount Olive north of Maplewood Cemetery.

Shanacee Jicaan Asha Lewis, 20, of 106 Appleview Drive, Mount Olive, was charged with five counts of breaking and entering of motor vehicles and a single county of felony larceny.

Further investigation might result in further larceny charges, Mount Olive Police Chief Brian Rhodes said.

Lewis is being held on a $500,000 secured bond.

Before Mount Olive police captured Lewis, though, the Wayne County Sheriff's Office already had two warrants for his arrest for breaking and entering and larceny.

In the last two days, however, two separate incidents of vehicle break-ins tipped off police to Lewis' location.

They found him hiding in the back seat of a car they had pulled over in the area. Once he was apprehended, Lewis didn't give officers any trouble, Rhodes said.

Once in custody, Lewis confessed to four breaking and entering offenses in the general area.

Basically, Lewis would check if car doors were locked and then search the cars to see if he could find any valuables, Rhodes said.

"We need to remind the public to secure their vehicles," he said.

Police were able to secure his finds and return some of the items that were stolen, but some items remain unclaimed.

"We recovered most of the (stolen) property, but we still have some property where we don't have a clue where it belongs," Rhodes said.