A Jefferson City man has been charged with felony stealing from local storage units.
Jordan R. Stokes, 31, was charged Saturday with the class D felony of stealing a welder, table saw, stereo equipment and other items worth more than $750 from Affordable Family Storage on Industrial Drive in Jefferson City.
The crime Stokes has been charged with is from July 1, but a more recent alleged theft brought him to the attention of the Cole County Sheriff's Department.
Two Cole County deputies responded Thursday to a report of theft from a storage unit at Larry's Honda in Apache Flats, according to a probable cause statement from the Sheriff's Department.
One deputy received information from the owner on items missing from his storage unit, and the other deputy noticed the tops of units opposite one another in the same building are covered by chicken wire.
The chicken wire between the unit that allegedly had been stolen from and the unit opposite it appeared to the deputy to have been disturbed.
The deputy said he "had already been looking into a suspect for thefts from storage units" and knew Stokes had been living for a month prior in the unit at Larry's Honda on the back side of the unit that had allegedly been stolen from.
The deputy said he had received a call a week or so before the theft from the storage unit at Larry's Honda from Stokes' ex-girlfriend. She told him she thought Stokes had stolen tools and two welders from her home. She also alleged Stokes "was breaking into storage units and stealing their contents."
An online check showed Stokes had been selling items to various pawn shops, including a welder matching the description of the stolen welder.
The deputy said once he looked into Stokes' activities, he found he had "placed a large amount of property in several storage units at Affordable Storage on Industrial Drive."
The deputy called the business and was told Stokes was not listed as a renter. The deputy went to Affordable Storage and reviewed security camera footage, and that footage revealed Stokes and his current girlfriend "had been coming into the climate-controlled business after hours with a pass code they should not know or have."
Management opened the units they observed Stokes putting items in and locking. The deputy was present and looked inside the units with the manager.
The deputy observed boxes in one of the units that matched the description of boxes of stereo equipment shipped back from Japan that the victim of alleged theft from Larry's Honda had described.
That victim later identified several items of his in the unit at Affordable Storage.
A table saw the deputy heard the owner of the Larry's Honda unit describe and that had been sold to a pawn shop in Columbia later was identified as belonging to the victim at Larry's Honda.
Stokes was arrested Friday and said the welder and other tools he had sold to pawn shops were given to him by his ex-girlfriend. He said the table saw and the stereo equipment had been given to him by another person.
Stokes did not have any bond set for him.