The actions of an alert, conscientious East Nashville homeowner led to today’s arrest of a copper thief who was applying his criminal trade on a residential air conditioning unit.
Kenneth Dwight Patton, 25, of West Heiman Street, is jailed in lieu of $20,000 bond on charges of felony vandalism and theft.
The concerned citizen had been awakened Wednesday morning by a noise at a neighbor’s house in the 1200 block of Shelby Avenue. A man was seen standing by the air conditioning unit, but the man was gone by the time officers arrived.
This morning the witness, who spent the night vigilantly checking outside a window every fifteen minutes, spotted a different suspect standing by a neighbor’s air conditioner. The witness called the neighbor, who was not home at the time. He arrived to find Patton tearing out the coils from the cooling system. Patton ran from the homeowner, but was quickly captured by East Precinct officers who had set up surveillance in the area to capture the suspect.
Patton’s arrest history reflects more than 50 offenses, including multiple counts of auto burglary.
*Patton’s photograph is being withheld pending a lineup involving similar copper thefts.
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