Arrest made in Beatrice stolen vehicle report

BEATRICE – Beatrice Police investigating a report of a stolen vehicle Saturday, arrested a 29-year-old man for the theft along with a weapon violation.

Authorities were sent to the twelve-hundred block of High Street early Saturday night on a report of a vehicle stolen by a person who the owner said did not have a driver’s license or insurance.

Two hours after the initial report, the person allegedly taking the vehicle returned to the address from which it had been stolen.   Police made contact inside a home with Paul Robert Thomas, questioning him about taking the vehicle. While there, police observed multiple cutting instruments…some with blades longer than three-and-a-half inches… in plain view.

During a record check, police found Thomas was prohibited from possessing lethal cutting instruments because of a prior conviction.   One of the instruments was a sword. 

A record check also indicated Thomas’s driver’s license had been suspended for an insurance cancellation in 2007 and that there was a prior conviction for driving under suspension in 2014.

Thomas was arrested for possession of a deadly weapon by a prohibited person, driving under suspension, and theft. 

In a separate incident resulting in an arrest...

A male driver stopped twice by police overnight, has been arrested on driving and drug charges.

Sunday night at around 9:19, an officer stopped a Chevrolet Blazer for a non-working headlamp.  Police found the operator’s license had been suspended.  The man was ticketed, told not to drive….and released.

Then, at about 12:45 Monday morning, the same white Blazer was observed eastbound in the one-hundred block of Court Street.  A police officer pulled alongside the vehicle in the three-hundred block of Market Street and observed the same man operating it.

After the driver exited the vehicle, a search revealed the man to be in possession of a glass smoking device with residue inside of it…and a small plastic bag which later field tested to contain methamphetamine.

Police arrested 55-year-old David Sutton on suspicion of driving under suspension, possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia.   Sutton’s license had been suspended on June 14^th.  Police said records indicated he also had three prior convictions for D-U-S….two in Jefferson County and one in Gage County.