On Monday, September 1st, 2014, the Opelika Police Department arrested 44 year-old William Eugene Barrett from Opelika, AL, on two counts of Burglary, Third Degree, two counts of Theft of Property, Second Degree, and one count of Criminal Trespass, Second Degree. The charges stem from an investigation that began Monday afternoon at Sun Self Storage, 2000 Columbus Parkway. A witness noticed a storage unit door ajar and heard someone inside the unit. As the witness investigated, a male later identified as Barrett, fled the storage unit, jumped the fence and ran into the woods. As officers searched for the suspect, they located a suspicious vehicle belonging to Barrett parked on the side of Columbus Parkway. Barrett later exited the woods and attempted to get into the vehicle. Detectives approached Barrett, who had property stolen from the storage unit in his possession. Additional stolen property from the storage unit, as well as a previous Burglary from Sun Self Storage was recovered.
Further investigation led Opelika Detectives to determine that Barrett was responsible for the Burglaries and Thefts that had occurred at the Southern Union Community College’s new construction site on August 4th and August 14th. There was over $10,000.00 worth of items stolen in those burglaries. Approximately $5,000.00 of that property has already been recovered and more was located at several pawn shops throughout east central Alabama. Additional property is being recovered, identified, and returned to the victims. Detectives are working diligently to identify the owners of the property so that it may be returned as well. The total number of victims and charges are yet to be determined.
Detectives determined that Barrett is the suspect in several Fraudulent Use of Credit/Debit Card and Theft cases at several local businesses. Charges are pending in these cases also.
These events are a major break in the above mentioned cases. The Officers and Detectives of the Opelika Police Department worked tirelessly in following up on all leads in these cases in order to solve them.
From the Archives — originally published on the Opelika Daily News on September 3, 2014. View the original page.
