(Seguin) — Thanks to the faith that a local business has in the Seguin Police Department, officers were able to snag an area thief. Seguin Police Chief Terry Nichols says the arrest occurred Friday morning but not after the Seguin PD teamed up with Dietz Tractor Company. Nichols says after being targeted by thieves, the Seguin PD was able to not only recover stolen property but find the person responsible.
“They went through the fence, tried to hotwire one of the big tractors and then forced open the gate and stole two riding lawn mowers, deck mowers — very big expensive deck mowers. They also stole a flatbed trailer from one of the businesses right down the street Seguin Machining and Supply. We found the trailer stolen from Seguin Machining and Supply in the parking lot of the Philips Market right there at the corner with Austin at the access road. It was abandoned there and looking around, they found one of the mowers hidden in the brush behind the store as well. We worked with the Dietz and they agreed to let us to leave it out there and put it under surveillance, leave the mower in the weeds and we kept it under surveillance for two days, electronic surveillance and then Friday morning, it started moving and we stopped the man pulling it on a trailer at the 647 mile marker headed towards Houston on Friday morning. We arrested him for the theft of the mower on a stolen trailer that was stolen from our Tractor Supply,” said Nichols.
Nichols says he is thankful to Dietz for giving them a chance to make things right.
“I’ll give a shout out to Dietz because they had the courage to trust us, to allow us to keep it under surveillance. They could have very easily said ‘give us our $10,000 mower. Thank you very much. We are done.’ But, they allowed us to leave it out there and trusted us to take care of it and we did,” said Nichols.
Nichols says these types of community partnerships are important in not only allowing them to solve crimes but to help deter others from happening.
“To be a victim of a crime, it’s horrible. I’ve been a victim so I know and it can be very frustrating for businesses especially people who have been hit in the past. So, it would be very easily just to say ‘no, we are going to take a loss, file an insurance claim and be done with it.’ But, they trusted us and they worked with us to help solve this crime and I’d like our folks to know that we take this very personal too when someone attacks some of our businesses because those men and women out driving in the middle of the night patrolling, they want nothing more than to catch a thief, to catch a burglar and when they come to work the next day and they realize that they got hit, they take it personal. So, were so excited to be able to have an opportunity for the folks at Dietz to give us an opportunity to actually try some technology and see if we can hold a person accountable and long behold, the man came back and he was sure enough to think he could strike twice in Seguin and we caught him,” said Nichols.
Arrested and taken into custody was traveling thief James Ernest Mathis, 51. Nichols say Mathis, who has ties to Houston and Corsicana, is known for doing this type of thing all across the state. Unfortunately, Nichols says they were unable to recover one mower but will continue to work with other agencies as they continue their investigation.
Mathis remains in the Guadalupe County Jail in lieu of a $50,000 bond.