SUV stolen from church recovered, teen’s mission-trip supplies restored
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An SUV that was loaded with supplies and donations for a teen’s mission trip to South America was stolen from a Laurel church parking lot on Wednesday night.
But a unified effort by local law enforcement and local churches helped capture the suspects, recover the vehicle and restore the stolen supplies less than 24 hours later.
DeeAnn Bond was dropping off her four children at Temple Baptist Church, at Hillcrest Drive and Highway 84 West, on Wednesday night when her Toyota Sequoia was taken. She wasn’t staying because she was scrambling to finish shopping for 17-year-old daughter LillyAnn’s mission trip to Peru.
“I just pulled up and ran in,” Bond said.
But when she came back out, her vehicle was gone. At first, she thought someone was playing a prank on her, so she called her daughter.
“She said, ‘I’m in choir practice, Mom,’” Bond said.
Then she thought it may have been a friend.
But then she realized that it had been stolen and reported it to the Laurel Police Department.
“When I go to the mall or Walmart, I lock it up, but I never thought that would happen in a church parking lot,” she said of why she left her keys in the vehicle. “I won’t do it any more.”
The LPD put the stolen-vehicle information on the national crime database NCIC and Temple Baptist posted information on Facebook that was shared numerous times. A friend of Bond’s spotted the vehicle in the Calhoun Community the next day — still sporting her personalized license plate “BONDRSA.”
Bond relayed the information to authorities, and Jones County Sheriff’s Department narcotics agent Chase Smith quickly found the vehicle and two occupants on Paulding Road. He and other JCSD personnel detained the two men and LPD Investigator Rodrigus Carr took them into custody.
“I called the LPD, and within 30 minutes, they had the vehicle and the (suspects) in custody,” she said, adding that she appreciated her friend and the JCSD for their roles, too.
Malik Newell
Andrew Harvey
Malik Newell, 23, of Laurel and Andrew Harvey, 20, of Laurel were charged with grand larceny and booked into the Jones County Adult Detention Center. Newell was out on $10,000 bond after being charged with commercial burglary for his role in break-ins and thefts at Professional Automotive last December. The business on Highway 84 East and Eastview Drive had three vehicles and thousands of dollars’ worth of tools stolen in two break-ins just days apart. Newell was one of five suspects arrested in relation to those crimes.
It is “frustrating” that one of the suspects was out of jail after being charged in a similar crime only a year earlier, Bond said. “But I’m trying to feel empathy for those that thought this is what they had to do with their life,” she added.
A teen’s vehicle that was parked nearby was also broken into that night, she said.
Bond’s SUV was loaded with her daughter’s clothes and groceries for a 15-day mission trip to Peru as part of a group of 15 from Elyon Ministries in Ellisville. There was also $650 in cash — donations for the trip — taken along with the other belongings. Bond’s home-school teaching supplies were also taken as was her husband’s handgun. Even the floormats and owner’s manual were taken, and the interior lights were broken.
“All I got back was my car and some Taco Bell napkins,” Bond said, chuckling as she drove her daughter to the airport in New Orleans on Friday morning. “With four kids, my car has never been that clean. I can laugh about it now.”
That’s because she saw a bright side during the ordeal.
“By midnight, we had three churches (Temple Baptist, First Baptist of Pecan Grove in Ellisville and SandHill Baptist/Elyon Ministries) reach out, and we had everything we needed for the trip — even more than we started with,” she said. “God worked it all out.”
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