(Seguin) — What began as a routine traffic stop earlier this year is ending with a blessing for area students – and just in time for the new school year.
This past spring, a Guadalupe County deputy pulled over a vehicle for a traffic violation. The odor of marijuana gave deputies probable cause to search the vehicle, leading to the discovery of a small amount of marijuana. During the search, William Herring, a constable for Pct. 4, says officials also uncovered a stash of high-end clothing—complete with store security sensors still attached—believed to have been stolen from retailers.
“We searched the car. Some marijuana paraphernalia stuff was in the vehicle and then I noticed when I popped the back hatchet of the SUV, there was a load of clothing – an unusual amount of clothing and then I noticed all these anti-theft security tags were on the clothes as well as the price tags – that is unusual. After questioning them, they denied taking anything but couldn’t account for where it came from. So, we seized the clothes based on the suspicion that they were stolen, the subjects were released until we could figure out any more information,” said Herring.
Herring along with Guadalupe Constable Pct. 4 Harvey Faulkner took possession of the property, allowing the vehicle’s owners the opportunity to claim it at the Justice of the Peace office. Faulkner says after the case went to a court hearing, letters were sent to advise how to retrieve the items.
“Judge set a trial date for it, sent them a letter – no one responded so that’s when the clothes were awarded to Pct. 4. Most of them were Nike clothes. So, when we saw the tags on it, we said ‘nah, this is not right.’ We were just looking for a place to donate them and a guy that I go to church with suggested we donate them to this organization so that’s how we came up with it,” said Faulkner.
When no one stepped forward, Faulkner says Judge Todd Friesenhahn of Precinct 4 awarded the unclaimed property to the Constable’s Office.
And rather than store the items, Faulkner, with the suggestion of a fellow church member, says he knew those clothes could serve a greater purpose. Valued at more than $5,800, the brand-named clothing he says will now be donated to Lifegate Christian School as the new school year begins.
“We discussed giving them to different organizations and we were thinking of schools, but schools usually have their logos on their uniforms and their workout stuff, so we said, ‘this seems like a good place,’” said Faulkner.
The constable’s office recently met up with folks from Lifegate to hand over the donation. Brianna Teboe, the president of the Lifegate booster club, says the school is appreciative for the donation.
“Until we came today, we didn’t know what we were receiving and so we are just incredibly blessed. It looks like mostly athletic gear and so a lot of this is going to go to our athletic students, I believe. We do have track, basketball and volleyball teams that are going to be able to benefit from this and so it’s just a huge blessing all around,” said Teboe.
Herring says finding such a large amount of new clothing while on the job is not something that happens every day – and lucky for these local kids, the timing was just perfect.
“I’m grateful that we were able to seize the clothes. Obviously, they were stolen and I’m happy that we were able to get them and put them to use in an organization that may need them for kids instead of people that are thieves. It’s a good thing. I’m grateful for it. I am glad that it worked out the way it did,” said Herring.
Both county officials and Lifegate recently celebrated the donation with a photo opportunity outside the steps of the Guadalupe County Courthouse.