A DeSoto County man was arrested Sunday in connection with the whirlwind thefts of a utility task vehicle and four guns in two separate Tallahatchie County crimes.
Edward Carl Haire, 40, of 1033 Town and Country, Southaven, is charged with two counts of grand larceny and one count each of burglary of an unoccupied dwelling house and possession of a weapon by a convicted felon.
Tallahatchie County Sheriff Jimmy Fly said Haire had been previously convicted of grand larceny and probation violation in Bolivar County.
Haire had an initial hearing Tuesday before Second District Justice Judge Denise Washington-Lockett, who ordered his bond set at $60,000.
Fly said a Polaris Ranger XP 1000, a side-by-side UTV, was reported stolen Aug. 28 from Sheley Road near Denman Loop.
Owners of the vehicle told law enforcement they earlier had noticed a suspicious white pickup truck with a Bolivar County tag parked nearby, said the sheriff.
The next day, the break-in of a duck camp located on White Lake Road near Quitman County was relayed to the sheriff's office. Fly said three long guns and one pistol were reported stolen in that incident.
Also on Aug. 29, local lawmen learned that the stolen UTV was found abandoned in a wooded area of Quitman County and, later, that a man in a white Dodge pickup tried to sell a gun to someone living in a rural area of Tallahatchie County, noted Fly.
Officials subsequently received information that a possible suspect was staying in an apartment near I-55 in Oakland, he added.
With the assistance of the Yalobusha County Sheriff's Office, Fly said Tallahatchie officials took Haire into custody at an Oakland apartment near the interstate, adding that one of the stolen weapons was found in a white Dodge Durango pickup that was parked outside.
Fly said all of the stolen weapons have been recovered.
