Investigators with the Carter County Sheriff’s Office are looking into a reported break-in at a house owned by the Elizabethton Municipal Airport after airport officials reported finding property from one of the homes posted for sale on a social media website.
On Friday, CCSO Investigator Travis Ludlow said he spoke with Elizabethton Municipal Airport Manager Dan Cogan regarding a break-in. Cogan reported the airport owns several vacant properties in the area of Sunrise Drive and one of those homes had been broken into.
“He said that he had located a picture on Facebook’s ‘Tri-Cities, TN, Yard Sales, Trades & Wanted’ page of a wood burning stove being sold for $225,” Ludlow said. “The picture appeared to be taken from inside the residence at (one of the airport owned properties) and showed the wood stove in the living room of the empty residence.”
Cogan then met with Ludlow at the residence. “I observed that the stove was still in the living room, and confirmed that it was the same stove from the picture in the Facebook post,” Ludlow said. “Mr. Cogan said that he did not know the people from the Facebook post, and that they did not have permission to enter or sell items from the house.”
As part of the investigation, Ludlow said he contacted the Facebook account that was offering the stove for sale and said he was interested in purchasing it. Ludlow said he arranged to meet the individual in the parking lot of a local retail store and then he and Investigator Randy Bowers went in plain clothes to meet the individual.
Ludlow said he met a man named Anthony Phillips, who was in the company of his stepfather Eric Blevins. The men were in a truck with the stove in the bed. Ludlow said a signal was given and uniformed officers then detained Phillips and Blevins.
“I spoke to Mr. Phillips, who stated that he did go into the residence (owned by the airport) and remove the stove,” Ludlow said. “He stated that he had spoken to an employee at the airport about removing items and was told that the house ‘was going in a hole, if I don’t see it get it.’”
Phillips told officers he had obtained keys to the home from a previous owner. Ludlow said he later confirmed the keys did in fact open the door of the house.
“Eric Blevins gave a statement that he was present with Anthony Phillips at the airport when an employee told them that if something went missing from one of the houses that ‘they know nothing,”’ Ludlow said. “Tanisha Parker, Phillips’ fiancee, arrived on the scene and I spoke to her. She said that she was present when an employee at the airport told them that ‘if anything in the houses were to go missing he would not go looking for it.’”
According to Ludlow’s report the incident is still under investigation by the Carter County Sheriff’s Office at this time.