Ark. man in plane spots his home being burglarized

[August 31, 2011]  BAY, Ark. (AP) -- An Arkansas man who wanted to capture aerial photos of his home during his first plane ride instead helped catch two men burglarizing it.

Steven Lynn said he could see the two taking items from his house.

"I looked down, and sure enough, there was a truck hooked onto a trailer, and guys were loading stuff up," Lynn told The Jonesboro Sun. "It didn't seem to faze them that we were buzzing over in an airplane; we got down pretty low."

Lynn called an uncle who lives nearby and 911.

Craighead County sheriff's deputy Phillip Wheaton said the two men unloaded the trailer and left the scene when the uncle arrived. But the pilot and Lynn's uncle followed them until they were stopped near Bay by Wheaton and two other officers.

"They were giving us turn-by-turn directions and giving us a description by county road," Wheaton told television station KAIT.

The two men in the truck, Roosevelt Smith III and Joseph Peel, both of Jonesboro, now face burglary and theft charges.

Smith and Peel didn't have listed phone numbers and couldn't be reached for comment.

Most of the stolen items were found, but Lynn said a rifle valued at $1,200 is still missing. Lynn said after talking to deputies, he realized a next-door residence he also owns had also been burglarized with several new ceiling fans, tools and copper wire missing.

"It's slim to none that you would ever see anything like that happening. I never would have expected it," Lynn said. "I just wanted to see my house from the air, but to see something like that is a complete mood change. I feel like I was really lucky.

[Associated Press]

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