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HUBBARD -- Police are looking for a Connecticut man accused of stealing Flock cameras in two Trumbull County communities.
Joseph Moore, 25, faces vandalism and theft charges from Hubbard City police and two theft and vandalism charges from Liberty police in Girard Municipal Court, with the most recent warrant for his arrest issued Oct. 16.
According to a Hubbard police report, an officer received a call from Safety Director Shawn Rentz on Aug. 3, reporting that the city’s Elmwood Drive Flock camera had been stolen, and upon investigation, saw that the pole it was mounted on was bent over as if it were hit with a vehicle, with its camera missing.
The officer checked the West and East Liberty Street camera locations and found them also stolen, but the AC adapter wires were still on the pole. Tire marks similar to the ones left at Elmwood were left behind. A detective provided the officer with the last recording time and date -- July 31 for the Elmwood and East Liberty cameras and Aug. 2 for the West Liberty camera.
The officer also obtained the last GPS locations for all six cameras, but it appeared the cameras were either tossed near the location they were stolen from or the off button was pressed, because none of the cameras showed leaving their pole placement locations, the report states.
The report states a fourth camera went missing Aug. 5 in a manner similar to the West and East Liberty Street cameras, which was reported to Police Chief Robert Thompson, who told him the city’s electrical department had removed Flock cameras at Jacobs Road and Drummond Avenue.
The report states the officer spoke Aug. 7 with a Flock investigator, who located the cameras’ last locations, noting them to be within 200 feet of the GPS ping locations, which were near the poles, and the investigator suggested the cameras might have been laying in the nearby woods or turned off.
The officer received an update from a detective and a Liberty police sergeant that they might have a suspect in both communities’ thefts, noting a black and white Chevrolet Suburban with Connecticut registration plates and adding that they had video of a black and white SUV backed up to one of their cameras.
The officer spoke with a Hermitage police detective about the Flock thefts, explaining that they have an active warrant out and video of the black and white Chevrolet backed up to one of their Flock cameras and removing it.
A supplemental report from another officer shared that they were requested to conduct a widespread Flock search for the vehicle to see if it had entered Hubbard, and discovered that it entered the community four times between July 15 and Aug. 7. A Hubbard Township officer encountered the vehicle broken down in front of a West Liberty Street residence around 12:29 a.m. Aug. 2.
The report states the officer helped get the vehicle out of the road, and it was found that the camera had last recorded at 12:20 a.m. that day.
The officer reached out to the township officer and said the driver was an average height, skinny white male with sandy brown hair, wearing a dirty yellow safety vest, confirming his identity through a picture shown to him.
A Liberty police report states officers were made aware of two missing Flock cameras from the township and from other areas Aug. 8, on Logan Way near Gypsy Lane and the Goldie Road entrance to Walmart.
The Walmart location’s camera wires had been cut, and then the camera was removed from the pole, with its last photo being taken Aug. 1, according to the report.