Keen eye foils trailer theft
By BRENDA SOMMER bsommer@leader-news.com

Familiarity with his community helped an El Campo Police sergeant nab a suspected trailer thief only blocks from the alleged crime scene.

Sgt. William Hedges was on patrol around 3:30 a.m. last Saturday when he saw a 2006 Ford pickup towing a gooseneck trailer along West Monseratte. He followed and watched the truck pull into a parking lot at 101 Palacios.

Hedges caught up to the truck around the time it got back on Palacios Street, and stopped it on West Jackson because the trailer's tail lights weren't working properly.

That's when he saw the trailer had "Pure Insanity" lettered on it, which he knew belonged to Insane Racing, a business on West Monseratte.

Hedges interviewed the truck driver John Steven Garcia, 27, of 502 E. Alabama St. in Wharton. Garcia allegedly told the sergeant he'd borrowed the trailer from a friend who worked at Insane Racing, but Hedges knew the name Garcia wasn't that of a worker at the company.

Hedges had a dispatcher call the owner of Insane Racing, who said no one had permission to take the trailer, worth $3,500, or its contents: a generator and tools worth $2,000.

Garcia was arrested on a charge of theft between $1,500 and $20,000, and taken to Wharton County Jail the same day. The trailer was returned to its owner.