A well-known person in the downtown Eatonton community was arrested recently following an incident at one of his regular hangouts.
Warren Yates, better known as “Radioman,” is seen daily walking around town visiting with anyone who will talk with him. A lifelong Eatonton resident, Yates proudly shares the community's events and happenings with others and discusses what he broadcasts on his low-powered radio station, AM 1520 WXPQ, which is based in his house. He frequents local events with a microphone in hand, ready to interview attendees and cover the latest happenings.
His sunny disposition apparently took a turn for the worse on Tuesday, Feb. 3, when Yates made his usual stop at McDonald’s on Oak Street, and police had to be called to intervene. According to a report from the Eatonton Police Department, 62-year-old Yates thought a 12-year-old girl was wearing his jacket and said that she had stolen it from him. When Officer Dillon Waldroup arrived, he saw the girl “visibly upset and wiping tears from her eyes.”
The girl tried to tell the officer what happened, but was reportedly crying so hard she couldn’t speak. After giving her time to compose herself and talking with the girl, her grandmother, and others who were inside the restaurant at the time, Waldroup was able to piece together what had happened.
Yates had accused the girl of stealing his jacket and chased her around the restaurant and threatened to kill her with a gun if she didn’t give it back to him, Waldroup wrote in his report. Security cameras inside the restaurant were not working at the time, he noted.
Outside the restaurant, Yates told the officer that he did have a taser on him, and he allowed the officer to take it. They then went inside the restaurant, and Yates immediately pointed to the girl and reportedly said, “That’s my jacket she’s wearing.”
“It was a small black jacket that fit a 12-year-old girl who weighs approximately 110 pounds,” Waldroup noted in his report.
John Warren Yates, 62, of Sunnydale Drive, Eatonton, was booked into jail at the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office on charges of cruelty to children in the first degree and felony terroristic threats and acts. He was released on property bonds totaling $5,000.
This was the first time Yates had been arrested, Eatonton Police Chief Howell Cardwell said.