A man wanted for outstanding warrants and breaking felony parole in Fort Smith is tricked into turning himself into police. A neighbor fed up with his newspapers being stolen helps get the man arrested.
A newspaper has been dropped off on Darryl Kersh's door at Timberline Apartments every day for the last five years, but Kersh says for nearly a week, it went missing.
"I called the police about it and they told me there wasn't nothing I could do unless I knew who did it," said Kersh.
Kersh says that's when he decided to trick the thief into giving up his information. According to Kersh, he used bate. He says he put a flyer in a newspaper with a number to claim a $2,500 cash prize.
"And I looked outside like three or four minutes later and it was gone,” said Kersh. “I was like wow, now I just wait on the phone call."
Kersh says he even rehearsed a script.
"Thank you for calling KLA answering services for D& J Enterprises,” said Kersh. “This is Monte, may I help you?"
He says a neighbor, Christopher Andrews, gave him his name, number, and address. Kersh says he turned that over to the police.
"By searching his name, discovered that the suspect in the newspaper thefts actually had a warrant out for his arrest," said Cpl. Steven Dooly with Fort Smith Police.
"They went along with what I was doing and they were my supervisors calling him back to get his reward," said Kersh.
"He did show to claim his prize and was then arrested on his outstanding warrants," said Cpl. Dooly.
Kersh said he didn’t know Andrews or about his warrants. He said he’s just happy to get his newspapers back.
Detectives say Andrews was arrested for violating felony parole and two outstanding city warrants.