Surveillance footage and a bank card led to the arrest of a Delco man on multiple theft charges.
Curtis Wayne Cruse, 50, of 5316 Delco Prosper Rd., was charged with three counts each of misdemeanor larceny and felony breaking and entering a motor vehicle, felony breaking and entering of a boat, injury to property and obtaining property by false pretenses, according to the Columbus County Sheriff’s Office. His bond was set at $28,500 secured.
Beginning on June 19, the CCSO said, Cruse went on a theft spree in the Riegelwood Delco area. He is alleged to have taken a bank card from a car at a home on Cedar Drive, then used the card in Wilmington and at the Riegelwood Scotchman. Cruse was spotted on video surveillance using the card, the sheriff’s office said.
The same day, someone took fuel cans and fuel, a string trimmer, impact wrench, leaf blower and chainsaw from another home on Cedar Drive. One of the cans was found empty and discarded nearby according to the report.
Two more homes on Cedar Drive were hit June 20. Cigarettes, fishing equipment and cash were taken from one residence – and again, Cruse was identified on surveilance footage, the report said. A gas tank on a boat at another home was damaged, and vehicles entered, but nothing reported taken.
Detectives worked to identify Cruse for a month and arrested him July 15, the sheriff’s office reported.
