Bandit busted, instruments returned

For the second time this semester, an exhaustive investigation by GCSU Detective Robert Butler lead to the return of stolen property and a suspect behind bars.

Alan Perez, 46-year-old, non-GCSU-student, was arrested on March 7 for the theft of five instruments from Porter Hall and charged with burglary and theft by receiving, both felonies.

“I want to praise the work of Robert Butler,” said Ken Vance, director of Public Safety. “He worked countless hours on this. He had a lot of help from the Baldwin County’s Sheriff Department and the probation folks, but Robert did the work. We were headed nowhere. He really, really worked hard and deserves all the credit.”

Butler spotted a rented car matching the description of a vehicle that had been seen near Porter Hall the weekend of the crime. The rental agency said the car was rented to the wife of Allan Perez. Butler said he knew the name immediately. Seven years ago, Alan Perez was arrested for stealing computers out of Mayfair Hall. “I knew he had also been arrested for stealing musical instruments before over in Macon and with the fact that he only lives two blocks from Porter, I knew that this could be the guy we had been looking for,” Butler said.

Before finding Perez, almost all of the other leads had been exhausted, Butler said.

“We checked eBay; all the music stores within about a hundred-mile radius of Georgia College and all the pawn shops here. We thought that we would see them on eBay, but they never showed up. So once we started looking locally, we knew that he would be a good candidate. He is a career thief.”

Further investigation revealed that Perez had recently been released from prison and that he was currently on probation.

“Some probationers have a clause in their probation that they can be searched without a warrant and he had that clause with his probation officer,” Butler said.

Under the clause, any law enforcement officer could search Perez’s house, vehicle or person without his consent. After a quick search of the Perez’s rental vehicle, Butler discovered all the stolen instruments in the trunk.

“He confessed going into Porter and stealing the musical instruments,” Butler said.

Music Chair and Associate Professor Richard Mercier said the instruments were returned just in time for the spring concert “Rhapsody in Blue.”

“The students were absolutely delighted and excited, and everything that you could possibly imagine at the news,” Mercer said. A time conflict prohibited Butler from receiving an onstage thank-you at the concert, but Mercier promised some sort of acknowledgment would be forthcoming.

“I believe that there is some kind of recognition coming from the students and the band and hopefully one from the department to thank him for his service above and beyond the call of duty. He literally was single handedly responsible for getting (the instruments) returned.” Four of the five instruments, including a fox bassoon, a buffet soprano clarinet, a buffet bass clarinet and a Yamaha euphonium, belonged to GCSU students.

“I’m just happy we got the instruments back to the kids,” Vance said. “You know what your own instrument will do. It is kind of like your favorite car or favorite shoe; you just know how they feel, and I am sure that this students were really happy to get theirs back.”

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Mar 24 2006. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry