Authorities say a man wearing a mop on his head broke into a store during the night and stole cash from the cash register. Because he was successful, the man reportedly returned to the same store several days later but succeeded in stealing only a Dr. Pepper.
Buddy Eugene Davy, 31, of Old Glenwood Springs Road, Eatonton, was arrested May 9 by Eatonton Police Department (EPD) officers and is being held without bond in Putnam County Jail facing charges of felony smash and grab burglary (two counts), criminal trespass, and misdemeanor willful obstruction of law enforcement officers, according to jail reports.
EPD crime reports reveal a person, later identified as Davy, used a hammer to shatter the glass door of CVS on Oak Street around 2:30 a.m. April 28. Eatonton Police Chief Howell Cardwell said the first officer on the scene, Dillon Waldroup, arrived in less than 90 seconds.
As other responding officers checked the building's outside perimeter, Waldroup ensured no one was still inside, and the store's management was notified.
Scan this QR code to view the video of CVS's burglary in Eatonton.
Waldroup and Cardwell watched the store's security video footage, which showed the burglar as "a female with a long curly blonde wig on her head with a colorful band on top," he wrote in his report.
The burglar opened the cash register with a screwdriver, grabbed the approximate $200 cash, and ran toward the back of the store. There, he apparently unintentionally knocked some items off a shelf, dropped a hair band on the floor, and then headed back out the shattered front door. He fell on the glass shards on the sidewalk, got up, and ran away.
Eatonton police officers patrolled the city looking for the suspect with Waldroup's description but were unsuccessful in their search.
Shortly after 5 a.m. on May 9, the burglar alarm at CVS sounded again, and EPD Officer Tommy Williams and Officer Hargrove Jones responded. The scene was the same as 11 days earlier, with the store's glass door completely shattered out of its frame. Again, no one was inside the building, and management was called.
This time, security camera footage revealed "a person with a masculine build wearing a red head covering … and black purselike bag over his shoulder … smashed the door with a hammer … ran directly to the cash registers, but once he saw that the registers were empty, he then ran toward his entry point, but before leaving, he opened a refrigerator and took several drinks before exiting quickly out of the store," Williams wrote in his report.
While Officer Jones searched the area around the store for anyone matching the offender he had just seen in the video, he recalled the footage of the previous break-in.
"I suspected that not only (were) the break-ins committed by the same person, but also that I (had) made contact with him before on an unrelated noise complaint call," Jones wrote in his report.
So, the officer went to the address on Old Glenwood Springs Road of that previous complaint, "where I had previously made contact with a man by the name of Buddy Davy," he wrote.
There, Jones noticed the vehicle parked out front "was still warm to the touch, indicating that it was used recently, but I was unsure by whom." He also noticed a pair of black sunglasses on the passenger seat that were similar to the pair worn by the offender in video footage of the first break-in.
Jones then returned to CVS and talked with Cardwell. They returned to the Davy residence to follow up on the previous noise complaint call. When they arrived, Jones reported that he immediately noticed the porch light, which had been on earlier, was turned off. When he knocked on the door, he also noticed a light within the residence was immediately turned off.
When Davy's sister opened the door and let Jones and Cardwell inside, they noticed items on the living room floor. Among the items described in Jones' report were some "makeshift tools … and a black purselike bag similar to the one worn by the suspect in both videos … on the floor beside a deflated air mattress where Buddy Davy normally sleeps, as informed by my initial encounter with him."
When questioned, the sister told the lawmen that Davy had left the house to go to work at a fast-food restaurant in town. "But he did not have a job at that restaurant," Cardwell told The Eatonton Messenger later.
As they were leaving, Jones noticed some items on the steps had been knocked off as if someone had left in a hurry, so Cardwell advised him to stay nearby to continue searching for Davy. Officers Rebecca Meeks and Chris Waldroup also responded to help search the area.
As they walked around the apartment complex, Meeks heard a noise at a neighboring residence where no one lived, so the officers went there.
"I observed a white male inside a utility closet walking back and forth until he walked out with his hands in the air and holding a purple Powerade bottle," Meeks wrote in her report.
As he exited the building, Davy reportedly ignored Meeks' and Waldroup's command to stop. Waldroup tased him, and Davy fell to the ground on the grass. Meeks radioed for EMTs to come to check on Davy as she put handcuffs on him, but he refused treatment when they arrived.
Cardwell said that Davy admitted to the officers that he had smashed the door at CVS both times.
"I asked him about the wig, and he said it was a mop head he wore to conceal his identity," Cardwell added.
Davy told the police chief he had used the money from the first burglary to buy a cell phone, dinner for his family at McDonald's, and cigarettes. Davy also told him that when there was no money in the cash register the second time, he grabbed a Dr. Pepper on his way out.
"Officer Jones did an outstanding job following his intuition," Cardwell said. "And I commend all of the officers involved in catching him. They deserve to be recognized, and I'm thankful for their hard work."
Cardwell said before Davy went to CVS, he attempted to break into Discount Tobacco the same night but did not gain entry.
Cardwell complimented Officer Nathan Mason for gathering security footage from the tobacco store, which helped confirm evidence from the CVS footage.