CUMMING — What had been reported as a crew of robbers posing as cable television repairmen who stole drugs from homes, turned out to be one suspect who pulled off the ruse more than once in Forsyth County.
Investigators with the Forsyth County Sheriff's Office arrested William Charles Arnold, 43, on Tuesday. He was in an old white truck that victims had described to officers, and inside that truck were two Comcast badges and some Comcast clothing.
"We do know that at one time he was a Comcast employee, however, we don't know how long ago he left the company and how he was in possession of the stuff that he had," said Rodriguez.
Rodriguez said Arnold would go to a home, tell the resident there had been a cable outage in the neighborhood and ask to check the cable in the residence. Once inside, he would distract the resident and that's when he would steal medication. Only after Arnold was gone did the homeowners realize their prescription drugs were missing.
Rodriguez said a deputy who began taking the reports from homeowners put the final pieces of the puzzle together and made the arrest.
"The deputy, who did an outstanding job, went out there, took several reports and decided that he was himself going to start the investigation and began talking to other victims and doing canvasses of subdivisions where he was getting 911 calls," said Rodriguez. "He was able to track the guy down when he saw the vehicle that matched the description and initiated the traffic stop."
He said once the deputy interviewed the suspect, Arnold admitted to committing the crimes, telling the deputy he had an addiction problem.
Arnold was arrested at that point and charged with theft by taking. Rodriguez said the investigation is ongoing.
Investigators think Arnold might have stolen prescription medication from other people using the same scheme, so they're asking anyone who had a similar experience to notify them.
